His span was much wider than Fed

When Alan Greenspan proposed to his wife, Andrea Mitchell, after 12 yrs of going around, she didn't get it. But his proposal went through despite the ambiguity, much like his testimonies as US Federal Reserve chair to government committees, spanning presidencies of Ronald Reagan to George W Bush. From 1987 to 2006, Greenspan was widely regarded as the 'second most powerful man in the US', thanks to his easy money policy that made inflation a distant memory. His tenure at the Fed was bookended by eras when money stopped being cheap. Paul Volcker, his predecessor, had brought inflation to heel after the first oil shock. Ben Bernanke, who succeeded Greenspan, had to handle the subprime crisis that economists trace back to the low interest rates of the 13th Fed chair's regime.

The jazz player - trained at Juilliard, he played saxophone, clarinet and flute - and Ayn Rand acolyte may have drawn more than his deserved share of deification and demonisation. Greenspan was correct in identifying US productivity gains during the 1990s that allowed markets to display 'irrational exuberance', his most famous coinage. Alongside the 'Greenspan put' that kept them going through crises, markets reacted equally to the 'Greenspan effect', which was talking down prices instead of having to raise interest rates. In the end, Greenspan admitted that his policies may have contributed to a housing bubble. But the admission was delivered in such Greenspan-speak that it ceased to matter.

Few legacies survive as prominently as Greenspan's. Central bankers still turn to his playbook to ride out crises. Most advanced economies have embraced his vision of easy monetary policy. His views on asset prices have shaped US foreign policy. His warnings over weaponisation of oil shaped the post-2001 US-led global 'war on terror'. That is an enormous influence for a semi-bureaucrat to wield at 80, when he stepped down. Greenspan never made it to Time's Man of the Year. Bernanke did. The irony would not be lost on Greenspan's followers. He never gave a media interview as Fed chair.