It is home to 714 million people under the age of 30, and while times are improving for many of them, a widening wealth gap has created vastly different fortunes.

A spate of public offerings could once again create sizable fortunes for venture capitalists and their limited partners.

Though the Internet created fewer fortunes than had been expected, it did deliver riches of information, creating an age of government disclosure not seen before.

Guided by a handful of appointed experts, it can create or destroy fortunes with its power to move interest rates.

The Civil War dispelled this pernicious wishful thinking, but by creating new fortunes it raised new anxieties.

"The story of Oklahoma is about people creating fortunes in unchartered territories, where the only limits to success were personal ones."

The newly reborn Chinese stock market created quick fortunes for a handful of investors.

The technology boom created flashy fortunes in many countries, but little ostentation in Finland, an egalitarian land that has traditionally disdained conspicuous displays of wealth.

When the dowry began, it could literally create fortunes because of the paucity of marriageable residents and the availability of cheap land.

Those thefts, which create small fortunes for Pemex managers and union officials, continue apace despite a crackdown.