large volumes of arab petrodollars were invested directly in us treasury securities and in other financial markets of the major industrial economies, often directed discreetly by government entities now known as sovereign wealth funds. many billions of petrodollars were also invested through the major commercial banks of the us and europe. in fact, the process contributed to the growth of the eurodollar market as a less-regulated rival to us monetary markets. as the recessionary condition of the world economy made investment in corporations less attractive, bankers and well-financed governments lent much of the money directly to the governments of developing countries, especially in latin america such as brazil and argentina as well as other major developing nations like turkey. the 1973 oil crisis had created a vast dollar shortage in these countries; however, they still needed to finance their imports of oil and machinery. in early 1977, when turkey stopped heating its prime minister's office, opposition leader suleyman demirel famously described the shortage as: "turkey is in need of 70 cents." as political journalist william greider summarized the situation: "banks collected the deposits of revenue-rich opec governments and lent the money to developing nations so they could avoid bankruptcy." in subsequent decades, many of these developing nations found their accumulated debts to be unpayably large, concluding that it was a form of neocolonialism from which debt relief was the only escape.