In the oil area, the rules of the old regime were shattered between 1967 and 1977, as power shifted dramatically from the multinational oil companies and home governments (especially the United States and Britain), on the one hand, to producing countries' governments, on the other. The latter organized since 1960 in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, secured a substantial price rise in negotiations at Teheran in 1971, then virtually quadrupled prices without negotiation after the Yom Kippur war of October 1973. Despite some blustering and various vague threats the United States could do little directly about this, although high rates of inflation in industrial countries and the decline of the dollar in 1997 helped to reduce substantially the real price of oil between 1974 and 1977 (Morgan Guaranty Trust Co.,1978 ) By 1977 the United States had apparently conceded control of the regime for oil pricing and production to OPEC, and particularly to its key member, Saudi Arabia. OPEC made the rules in 1977, influenced (but not controlled) by the United States. Only in case of a crippling supply embargo would the United States be likely to act. The United States was still, with its military and economic strength, an influential actor, but it was no longer dominant.