Paul Volcker deserves to be remembered as most influential central banker | Larry Elliott

The former Fed chairman used monetarist shock treatment to cure the US of its serious inflation habit

Some would choose the Bundesbank's Karl Otto Pihl. The recently retired former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi would have his supporters. But the man they would have to beat for the title of the most influential central banker is Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who has died aged 92.

Volcker shaped the modern world in three key ways: as chairman of the Fed, he used monetarist shock treatment to cure the US of the serious inflation habit it had developed in the 1970s; he did so by jealously guarding central bank independence; and he created the conditions for a 25-year bull market on Wall Street that only ended with the onset of the 2007 financial crisis.

Related: Paul Volcker, US Fed chief under Carter and Reagan, dies at 92