Nairobi, June 30 -- Alan Greenspan never set interest rates for Kenya. Yet for nearly two decades, the price of the shilling moved in the shadow of decisions made at the US Federal Reserve. When Greenspan spoke, currencies shifted, capital moved, and markets around the world paid attention.

His death this week at 100 is, therefore, not merely the passing of a former policymaker. It is an occasion to reflect on a man whose influence reached far beyond the US.

Greenspan led the US Fed from 1987 to 2006, serving five terms under four presidents - Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Few public officials have enjoyed such longevity at the apex of economic policymaking. Fewer still have shaped the intellectual ...