The half-decade rise in oil prices had brought significant changes in the global economy and dramatic shifts in income. Trillions of dollars flowed from oil-importing countries to the exporters—one of the greatest transfers in income in the history of the world. The accumulation of oil wealth in the savings accounts of the exporters—their sovereign wealth funds—has made them powerful forces in the world economy, putting them in the position, as noted earlier, to step in and help bail out troubled banks in the United States and Europe.
