At this event, Le Maire stated ever-so candidly that "the Bretton Woods order has reached its limits. Unless we are able to re-invent Bretton Woods, the New Silk Road might become the New World Order".

He went onto state that "the pillars of that order have been the International Monetary Fund and its sister institution, the World Bank since their inception at the Bretton Woods conference in  New Hampshire in 1944."

Were a radical transformation not undertaken immediately, then Le Maire laments "Chinese standards on state and on access to public procurements, on intellectual property could become global standards".

The finance minister's statements reflect the growing awareness that two opposing systems operating on two conflicting sets of principles and standards are currently in conflict, where only one can succeed. Yet as much as he appears to be aware of the forces at play between two systems, Le Maire fails miserably to identify what the Bretton Woods System was meant to accomplish in the first place, or what type of "radical transformation" is needed to save Europe from the collapse of its own speculation-ridden system.