That is one of many interesting issues raised by Times selectman Floyd Norris today.

As Norris notes, Alan Greenspan never had half the power people thought he had.  All he does is set short-term (credit) risk free US rates.   The markets set most other rates. And increasingly, policy decisions elsewhere shape some of those key rates (ten year Treasuries, anyone).

More importantly, the US is not the financial power it once was.  That reality likely implies, should something happen, that the composition of the Committee to Save the World (that was the name Time magazine gave to Greenspan, Rubin and Summers after the 97 Asian crisis and the 98 LTCM/ Russia/ Brazil crisis) would need to change.

"Mr. Greenspan's power and prestige probably peaked in the late 1990's.   That was symbolized by the 1999 Time magazine cover that proclaimed the "Committee to Save the World" with him as chairman, and Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and his deputy, Lawrence H. Summers, as lesser members.   Now the financial power of the United States, and thus of the Fed, is reduced, a trend that Mr. Bernanke has been a leader in analyzing.  Given who owns dollars, if a similar committee were needed now, it would not be an all-American one, and probably would have to include someone from China."

The US has become dependent on an interest rate subsidy from our external (official) creditors.  That gives them a seat at the table.   A sudden withdrawal of the subsidy would be rather disruptive.  If oil prices stay high, the Russians and Saudis probably get a seat at the table as well.   Talk about change.