Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of Europe's central bank, said to a recent meeting of the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations that in order to prevent another dramatic economic crisis, a new type of "global governance" must bring accounting practices on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean into sync with one another.

"It is his belief that through global governance, the resiliency of the global financial system can be assured, noting that ultimately it was governments’ use of taxpayer’s money, equivalent to around 25% of GDP on both sides of the Atlantic, that prevented another catastrophic great depression from occurring," wrote Forbes reporter Mina Sanini, who captured the remarks.

"After mid-September the intensification of the crisis, it was really a question of half-days to measure the rapidity of the consummation," he said, adding that it had spread "all over the world, [to] all of the different sectors."

"This is something which I had not observed before," Trichet explained.

"It is extremely important that we have really a level playing field, that we have really, at the global level, the same rules being applied by all," he continued. "This is very, very important, in my understanding of course, for the good and appropriate functioning of global finance. It is extremely important that we, in this new ownership of global governance, have particularly on both sides of the Atlantic, the implementation of the same rules, in the same fashion."