Author: CRT Admin

Two Wall Street Journal reporters (David Uberti and Jack Pitcher) just wrote on the dramatic market rush to buy gold – an inert metal that pays no interest.  Is this a judgment on Trump- managed capitalism?

They write:

Investors worried about the future of the dollar and other major currencies are piling into gold, bitcoin and other alternative assets, powering what has become known on Wall Street as the debasement trade. …

Most-actively-traded gold futures on Tuesday surpassed $4,000 a troy ounce for the first time. On Wednesday, gold rose further to settle at $4,043.30 a troy ounce.

The gold rally of 2025 is unusual in that it hasn’t been fueled by a financial meltdown.  A 52% gain in futures this year is on track to outpace similar surges during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2007-09 recession, trailing only the inflationary shock in 1979.

These days, investors are pouring money into precious metals such as gold and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin at the same time President Trump has pledged to juice the economy through tax cuts and traders have pushed stocks to records with a fervor for all things artificial intelligence.

As investors make increasingly speculative bets that the boom will continue, they are also looking for ways to shield themselves from potential fallout of U.S. policy dysfunction, including widening budget deficits and the current government shutdown.  That is pushing them into assets not denominated in dollars.

Wall Street has pointed to this move as evidence that ballooning debt and uncomfortably high inflation are disrupting the outlook for currencies underpinning the global financial system.

“We’re seeing a tug of war,” said Joe Davis, chief economist at Vanguard Group.  “You’ve got the S&P 500 pricing in an AI supernova and you’ve got the gold camp saying, ‘We’re going to have structural deficits, we have fiscal pressure in the U.S., and I need to manage that risk.’”

Gold prices have risen for years … Trump’s promise to upend the global trading system in 2025 added momentum by pushing the U.S. dollar by one measure to its weakest first half in more than five decades.

What do you think?

As a fan of Adam Smith – the writer of both An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments – I want to share most of the recent commentary written for the Wall Street Journal by former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm and a colleague on how President Trump’s obsession with tariffs is a very bad, long term growth strategy for our national economy and is incompatible with successful free markets and creation of the “wealth of nations.”

Gramm’s argument validates one of the Caux Round Table’s Principles for Business:

Principle 5: Support Responsible Globalization:

-A responsible business, as a participant in the global marketplace, supports open and fair multilateral trade.
-A responsible business supports reform of domestic rules and regulations where they unreasonably hinder global commerce.

Here is Gramm’s essay.

Consider these quotes and reflect on this question: In thinking about his place in our world, does this man (Donald Trump) have a reassuring grip on reality?

“And I don’t mind making the speech without a teleprompter because the teleprompter is not working.  I feel very happy to be up here with you nevertheless and that way you speak more from the heart.  I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”

“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up, stopped right in the middle.  If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would’ve fallen.  But she’s in great shape.  We’re both in good shape.  We both stood.  And then a teleprompter that didn’t work.  These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”

“… the guns of war have shattered the peace I forged on two continents.”

“One year ago, our country was in deep trouble, but today, just eight months into my administration, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world and there is no other country even close.”

“Under my leadership, energy costs are down, gasoline prices are down, grocery prices are down, mortgage rates are down and inflation has been defeated.”

“In my first term, I built the greatest economy in the history of the world.  We had the best economy ever, history of the world and I’m doing the same thing again, but this time, it’s actually much bigger and even better.  The numbers far surpass my record-setting first term.”

“My administration has negotiated one historic trade deal after another, including with the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and many, many others.”

“… in a period of just seven months, I have ended seven unendable wars.  They said they were unendable. … No president or prime minister.  And for that matter, no other country has ever done anything close to that and I did it in just seven months.  It’s never happened before.  There’s never been anything like that.  Very honored to have done it.  It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them.  And sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”

“I’ve also been working relentlessly stopping the killing in Ukraine.  I thought that would be, of the seven wars that I stopped, I thought that would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, which had always been a good one.”

“I’m really good at this stuff.  Your countries are going to hell.  In America, we’ve taken bold action to swiftly shut down uncontrolled migration.”

“And I’m really good at predicting things.  They actually said during the campaign, they had a hat, the best-selling hat.  Trump was right about everything.  And I don’t say that in a braggadocious way, but it’s true.  I’ve been right about everything.”

“He liked me.  I liked him and I only do business with people I like.”

In reflecting on his words, consider this summary from Google AI:

“Grandiose overt narcissism is a subtype of narcissistic personality disorder characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a need for constant admiration and a lack of empathy, all of which are displayed outwardly.  Unlike more hidden “vulnerable” narcissism, grandiose narcissists are often charming, outgoing and appear highly confident, using this persona to achieve their desires for power, prestige and control.  While they may seem successful, this facade masks a fragile ego that relies on external validation and their behavior often involves arrogance, entitlement and a tendency to manipulate others.”

Key characteristics:

-Inflated self-importance: A grandiose sense of self-importance, believing they are superior to others and destined for great things.

-Need for admiration: A deep need for excessive admiration and praise from others to validate their perceived superiority.

-Lack of empathy: A profound inability to recognize or care about the feelings and needs of others.

-Charismatic and outgoing: Often possess superficial charm and charisma, drawing people into their orbit, especially when they want something.

-Sense of entitlement: A firm belief that they deserve special treatment and automatic compliance with their expectations.

-Arrogance and haughtiness: Exhibit an arrogant or haughty demeanor and behavior.

-Manipulation and exploitation: Willingness to lie, cheat or manipulate others to achieve their goals.

-Fragile ego: Beneath the outward confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that requires constant external validation to maintain.

We recently posted several short videos on relevant and timely topics.  They include:

–Immigration as Hosts and Guests

–Pope Leo and the Caux Round Table Principles

–On Words and Violence

–The Reality of Supply and Demand

–Caux Round Table Principles as a Blueprint for the UN

All our videos can be found on our YouTube page here.  We recently put them into 9 playlists, which you can find here.

If you aren’t following us on Twitter or haven’t liked us on Facebook, please do so.  We update both platforms frequently.

Here is a short essay of mine on the American meltdown in self-confidence after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

I have lived through the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Given a new mass culture of nihilism and narcissism and the divisiveness attendant on loss of common ideals, the impact of this assassination – expressed by one commentator after another – seems more invidious.

The beginning of the end for the Roman Republic, in common memory, occurred when Julius Caesar led his legions from their colonization of Gaul back to Rome and on January 10, 49 BCE, crossed the small Rubicon River, a legal boundary beyond which a general could not lead his military followers.

Legend has it that as Caesar urged his horse into the river he said alea iacta est! – “The Die is Cast!”  The result of his crossing the river was civil war, then his assassination, then another civil war and then the replacement of the Republic with an empire.

So, the phrase “to cross the Rubicon” has come to mean to trigger a tipping point of lawlessness from which the society cannot recover.

Yesterday, another American thought leader, a young Charlie Kirk, was assassinated for speaking his beliefs, for his politics, for acting on his rights.  He was censored – silenced – for saying the wrong things in the mind of his assassin.

In my state of Minnesota, the other month, a civic minded politician elected to our state House of Representatives, a Democrat and her husband, were assassinated in their home by a man, whom we can only consider deranged.  His beliefs and motivations, the nature of his psychosis most likely, we don’t know and may never know, as he has a right under our constitution not to speak at his forthcoming trial.

We also more recently here in Minnesota were existentially victimized by what should be considered an assassination – in this case, the intentional murder of children during a worship service as an expression of self-serving rage and hatred by their dysphoric murderer.

Donald Trump was shot by one would-be assassin and was targeted by another.

Luigi Mangione assassinated the CEO of United Healthcare, most likely out of political opposition to the company’s practices, lawful practices, generating a hatred and a self-righteousness that murder is justified when the life taken is evil incarnate.

Has the U.S. crossed a Rubicon protecting its republican virtue from violence? A crossing that has opened for us an historic new era of factional fratricide, where citizenship is replaced by a vindictive tribalism?

Is American civilization at risk?

Where there is no social contract or accepted constitution, providing for a social capital of peace, mutual assistance, goodwill, preservation and comity, then there is no common standard of right and justice, no common rule of what must not be attempted.  Then, too, there is no authority to judge among people who is right and who is wrong and have that judgment accepted by the community as lawful.  Then, rule by personal diktat – “my” truth – enforced by repression replaces social justice with the law of the jungle – eat or be eaten; kill or be killed.  Or as Thomas Hobbes wisely predicted: “The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

Is that what Americans subconsciously want for their grandchildren?  Taking revenge on those who offend us with their thoughts and words?

As John Locke wrote, when there is a state of enmity, malice, violence and mutual destruction and when there is the design or use of force upon the person of another, there is no common judge to adjudicate between aggressor and victim.  There is only “an appeal to the God of Heaven” and war.

Locke affirmed: “Where there is no judge on earth, the appeal lies to God in Heaven.”  And we   might add, an appeal to force and violence – to war – here on earth.

May the Lord – and all his saints – deliver America from such evil.

Something has gone very wrong.  The assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband and the murder of children in a church during worship are “signs of the times” – bad signs.

We have brought ourselves as Americans to a degrading and disgraceful existential cul-de-sac as we approach the 250^th anniversary of our country – the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Several of my colleagues have joined with me to draft this statement.

We hope it will encourage you to join hands and save our republic from decadence or worse.