Of Bureaucrats, Politicians, and Statesmen How to Right-Size the American Dream by ©Alexandre Muns Rubiol ©Editorial Aresta 1 About the Author Alexandre Muns Rubiol is a Professor at EAE Business School in Barcelona, writer, consultant, editor, and regular contributor to media. He has served as Speechwriter and Assistant to three presidents of multilateral development banks: to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London (1998-99), and to the President of the World Bank Group and the President of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. (2009-2011). Alexandre has also served as Head of the CIDOB Foundation's (Spain’s second think-tank) Europe Program, Director of Studies of the American Chamber of Commerce in Spain and Director of International Relations at Barcelona-Catalonia Logistics Center. Alexandre has been a Lecturer at several Spanish universities since 1997. He has taught courses on European Integration, International Economic Institutions, International Economics, European Economics and Culture & Business in Europe at the undergraduate and graduate level at Pompeu Fabra University (1997-98, 1999-2009, 2011-2013), International University of Catalonia (2008-2009), Rovira i Virgili University (2004), and ESADE Business School (2008-2009). Alexandre has authored books on the break-up of the USSR (in Spanish, De la perestroika a la CEI), the post 9-11 world order and U.S. Foreign Policy (in Spanish, ¿USA, Quo Vadis?), German reunification (The End of the Cold War: German Reunification), and the global economic crisis (in Spanish Conversaciones con Marx: Diálogos en torno a un liberalismo ético and Ethical Capitalism: What it can do for you). He has also published more than 250 articles in the main Spanish newspapers and newsmagazines on international and national economic, political and security topics, as well as several academic articles. He is a frequent analyst on European, U.S. and transatlantic affairs on Spanish radio and TV. He has been a consultant for the Spanish bank Bankpyme, to the Catalan government (in 2000-01 and 2012), and indirectly for the Spanish government in a development project in Equatorial Guinea and another related to Spain’s presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2010. Alexandre holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and History and a PhD in Contemporary History from the University of Barcelona. His doctoral thesis described and analyzed the international negotiations that enabled German reunification in 1989-90. 2 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Introduction by Dr. Lothar de Maizière 6 Foreword by Prof. Horst Teltschik 7 Chapter 1. Recommendations for navigating bureaucracies 11 1a. Examples of successful complaints against bureaucracies 17 1b. Which country has the most efficient bureaucrats? 19 1c. Flawless system for quickly clearing security legally at airports 21 1d. The “Idiocrat Award” 23 Chapter 2: Introducing the post-BRICS TIDE challenges 24 Chapter 3. The terrible legacy of Zapaterismo 27 Chapter 4. John Maynard Keynes to the rescue? 32 Chapter 5. Working the Barcelona-Madrid axis 37 Chapter 6. Merkel and the European Central Bank 44 Chapter 7. Chloe, SSS and matters of the heart 54 Chapter 8. Germany, austerity and the inevitable burn-out 64 Chapter 9. Euromediterranean cooperation and Nuba 80 Chapter 10. Back to Poland 89 Chapter 11. The U.S. government shutdown of 2013 110 Chapter 12. Final Thoughts on how to Right-Size the American Dream 130 Chapter 13. A Conversation with Dr. Juan José Daboub about Latin America’s reforms 131 Chapter 14. How today’s VIPs would tackle the post-BRICS TIDE challenges 134 Howard Bloom. Author, scientific thinker and publicist 140 Aaron Brickman. Deputy Director, Select USA, U.S. Department of Commerce 141 Daniel Griswold. President of the National (U.S.) Association of Foreign-Trade Zones 143 Orhan Güvenen. Professor of Econometrics and Strategic Decision Systems, University of Bilkent 145 Gary Litman. Vice President for Initiatives, U.S. Chamber of Commerce 150 Michael Maibach. Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute 152 Mark Notturno. Interactivity Foundation 156 Sven C. Oehme. President and CEO, European-American Business Organization 160 Alfred Pastor. Professor, IESE Business School. Former Deputy Economics Minister of Spain 163 Víctor Pou. Professor, IESE Business School. Former Counselor for Foreign Affairs, European Commission 164 George Ward. U.S. Ambassador (ret). Former Vice President of World Vision 167 Xu Xiaonian. Professor of Economics and Finance, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) 170 Bibliography 171 3 Acknowledgements I owe a great debt of gratitude to Àngels Viladot and Lluís Montagut. They have been trailblazers as the creators of Aresta in publishing books by leading European and American scholars on a wide range of topics whose common denominator is their effect on our evolving society. Whether they deal with psychology, women’s rights or health sciences, Aresta’s authors endeavor to provide readers with fact-based analysis that enables them to better comprehend the dizzying speed with which our society is changing. Aresta’s books are read by academic and non-experts alike, as they stay away from excessive technical detail and instead explain complicated phenomena in a plain language that the reader can enjoy. When I began to question my unwavering support for unfettered free markets as a result of the beginning of another -- this time global -- crisis in 2007, I reached out to Lluís, Àngels and their son Bernat with the idea of a brief chronology of the XXth century and a deeper description and analysis of the 2007-2010 crisis conducted through a conversation with a resurrected Karl Marx. Given capitalism’s crisis as venerable banks went bankrupt in 2007-2008, I submitted the idea in a brief conversation to Timothy Garton Ash, one of the world’s foremost historians and political scientists. He liked it. I used Karl Marx as a sparring partner. Despite Communism’s utter failure, the resurrected Marx failed again to understand that restricting freedoms can never be accepted in the pursuit to empower the weaker and poorer and to reduce inequality. While Marx teamed up with Hugo Chávez and Vladimir Putin, I presented my proposals on how to improve and reform capitalism by making it more ethical, social and environmentally sustainable. Àngels, Lluís, Bernat and I worked feverishly in the middle of 2010 and managed to publish “Conversations with Marx: Dialogues about a more ethical capitalism” without having a single meeting. Aresta subsequently published my “Ethical Capitalism: What it can do for you”, an updated (to March 2011) English version of Conversations with Marx. Aresta again accepted my proposal to describe and analyze the recovery (2011 to the present), on this occasion through a conversation with John Maynard Keynes. As almost all governments and international institutions have embraced Keynesian policies to some degree, I had the thankless task of questioning Keynes’ refusal to entertain the notion that stimulus must be coupled with austerity in the wake of the mountains of debt incurred by governments, businesses and families. I have deep gratitude for Prof. Horst Teltschik, one of the most decisive officials who negotiated German reunification, for authoring the foreword to this book, as well as to Lothar de Maizière, East Germany’s only democratically-elected Prime Minister in history, for drafting an introduction. I also thank all of the VIPs who have taken time to provide input for the book Dr. Kimio Kase, Vice President and Dean at the International University of Japan for endorsing its contents. The book would not have been completed without my mother’s support. Julius Gwyer has behaved like a brother to me since my return to Washington, D.C., in October of 2013. Despite his heavy workload at the World Bank, Julius always finds time to include me in his activities and has introduced me to countless persons. His professional and personal commitment to the cause of promoting development and ending poverty is remarkable. I would be remiss in not thanking the people who work for or live in the Brookside Community in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where I have been living since November of 2013. And Bee and Mark Rossof from Best Buy’s Potomac Yard store saved me from a heart attack when they transferred all of my data from my one-year-old Toshiba laptop’s hard drive to a new Toshiba I had to buy. The NFL’s games have provided a needed distraction in the past year. Watching Payton Manning set the all-time record for touchdown passes in a career on October 19, 2014, was a poignant moment. Washington D.C’s Q107 radio station plays the music that keeps me going. 4 Don MacShane has played a key role in pushing me to work harder and not give up. The Bonangelino family has stood by me in trying times. I appreciate Katia and her family’s hospitality in the summer of 2013 allowing me to get away from the daily grind of work and enjoy a placid and inspiring few weeks in Poland. In the many hours I have spent by myself in the condominium at the Brookside Community in the past few months, CNN has continued to be the closest thing to a roommate. Its fearless and idealistic correspondents (Nic Robertson, Karl Penhaul, Diana Magnay, Arwa Damon) risk their lives to bring us live reporting from conflict- and disease-ridden countries. I am sometimes tempted to switch to MSNBC or Fox to get an alternative point of view. But I quickly realize that the former has a left-wing bias, whereas the latter mostly represents an angry right-wing ideology. So I quickly return to CNN, comfortably reassured that its anchors -- Brooke Baldwin, Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Richard Quest, Jake Tapper -- are not only outstanding journalists who ask tough questions and ensure fairness in the coverage of any story, but also individuals who passionately search for the truth, influence events and highlight the plight of the weakest and those who cannot speak out for themselves.