Category: Events

For nearly 170 years, the thought of Karl Marx has justified fierce opposition to capitalism.  But, in retrospect, was his critique at all in alignment with reality?  Should it matter to us anymore?

The March issue of Pegasus, coming your way, suggests a new take on Karl Marx and Adam Smith.  Consider them as storytellers, not as scientists.  What are their storylines?  What do they seek to teach us through story?

Please join us for a round table discussion over Zoom on Karl Marx and how to critique capitalism at 9:00 am (CST) on Tuesday, March 28.

Now, last year, we sent out a special issue of Pegasus wherein I contended that Marx did not at all understand capitalism and the universal human process of wealth creation.  Rather, I suggested, he only saw rent extraction as the basic human approach to the acquisition of economic assets.  Thus, he came up with a theory of capitalism as nothing more than rent- seeking.  You can find my essay here.

To register, please email jed@cauxroundtable.net.

The event is free and will last about an hour.

Professor Emeritus Doran Hunter, a member of our board, has proposed that the Republic of the United States of America needs a renaissance – a rebirth – of civic virtue.

I agree.

Please join me and Doran for lunch at noon on Thursday, February 16, at the Landmark Center in St. Paul (this event was originally scheduled for January 19, but was cancelled due to weather).

Doran’s thesis is that in the beginning – ad fontes as leaders of the Italian Renaissance directed – private virtue was proposed as the foundation of a just society, economy and polity.  But, as Doran has written, the founders of our republic intuited that private virtue was a public good, as it, willy-nilly, gave rise to public virtues in the minds and hearts of citizens.

The issue, of course, is what is virtue and what are the virtues we should enfold into our character?  Doran proposes a list, with some assistance from Benjamin Franklin.

As thinkers of the Italian Renaissance and then the European renaissance, which triggered the Reformation and then the Enlightenment, which has given us modern civilization, looked back to Aristotle and Cicero, let us look back to Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Locke, Smith, Blackstone and others who set forth the design of constitutional democracy and a just capitalism.

Cost to attend is $10, which you can pay at the door.

Box lunches from Afro Deli will be provided.

To register, please email jed@cauxroundtable.net.

The event will last about an hour and a half.

How would you spend $18 billion if it were your money and doing the greatest good for the greatest number were your objective?

The annual celebration of John Brandl’s uncommon quest for common ground will consider this question.

John Brandl (1937-2008) was dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a Minnesota legislator.  A staunch Democrat, he was inquisitive and inclusive.  His politics and his friendships, as we might say today, were those honoring diversity of all, equity for all and thoughtful inclusion of all.

Having known John, I am tempted to say, in his case, that the arc of the moral universe is indeed long, but expressed itself in bending towards the common good.

Each year since his passing, I and several colleagues of very different political orientations, have convened discussions on public policy to continue John’s uncommon search for that common ground.

The convocation seeking wisdom from the opinions of many will be held from 4:00 to 5:30 pm on Thursday, February 2, at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs in Cowles Auditorium and you are invited to attend.

To register, please click here.

The event is free and open to the public.

Professor Emeritus Doran Hunter, a member of our board, has proposed that the Republic of the United States of America needs a renaissance – a rebirth – of civic virtue.

I agree.

Please join me and Doran for lunch at noon on Thursday, January 19 at Landmark Center in St. Paul.

Doran’s thesis is that in the beginning – ad fontes as leaders of the Italian Renaissance directed – private virtue was proposed as the foundation of a just society, economy and polity.  But, as Doran has written, the founders of our republic intuited that private virtue was a public good, as it, willy-nilly, gave rise to public virtues in the minds and hearts of citizens.

The issue, of course, is what is virtue and what are the virtues we should enfold into our character?  Doran proposes a list, with some assistance from Benjamin Franklin.

As thinkers of the Italian Renaissance and then the European renaissance, which triggered the Reformation and then the Enlightenment, which has given us modern civilization, looked back to Aristotle and Cicero, let us look back to Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Locke, Smith, Blackstone and others who set forth the design of constitutional democracy and a just capitalism.

Cost to attend is $10, which you can pay at the door.

Box lunches will be provided.

To register, please email jed@cauxroundtable.net.

The event will last about an hour and a half.

Please join us at 9:00 am (CST) on Tuesday, December 13, for a round table discussion on “mindsets” over Zoom.

The November issue of our newsletter Pegasus presents an innovation in thinking about moral capitalism, ESG, sustainability, stakeholder capitalism, companies with a purpose, profit and loss outcomes, net impacts on society and culture, wealth creation – “mindsets.”

The premise of this approach is simple: what we accomplish often depends on what we do or don’t do.  What we attempt to do or neglect to do depends on what our thoughts, values and perceptions are.  Our thoughts, values and perceptions – our various narratives and motivations – our very moral sense itself – are now often bunched together in the popular jargon of “mindset,” as in “sustainability mindset.”

Please help us better understand and develop a “mindset” approach to wealth creation with your thoughts and recommendations.

To register, please email jed@cauxroundtable.net.

Michael Hartoonian, Associate Editor of Pegasus, will lead the discussion.

The event is free and will last about an hour.

Please join us at 9:00 am (CST) on Thursday, November 10 on Zoom to thank Bob MacGregor, former Co-Chairman of the Caux Round Table, for his life of dedication and service, in particular, for his leadership in coordinating the drafting and publication of the Caux Round Table’s Principles for Business.

Bob recently turned 90 years old.

He trained for the Presbyterian clergy at Princeton Seminary.  Servant leadership as held up by John Calvin came naturally to him.  His resolve is every day to say “Onward and upward” and then to follow his own admonition.  With this spirit, Bob does not see obstacles, only opportunities to do better.

His sense of stewardship enabled him to blend Japanese ethics, Catholic Social Teachings and his own Protestant sense of worldly ministry into an international team of Caux Round Table leaders, with much help from stalwart Moral Re-Armament activists.

Earlier in his life, Bob served as Vice President and Executive Director of the Dayton Hudson Foundation (now Target); President of Chicago United, the top business group in Chicago in the 1970s; President of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce; and President of the Center for Ethical Business Cultures, affiliated with the University of St. Thomas.  He also served four terms on the Minneapolis City Council and was initially recruited to run by the business community.

He is the author of Leadership: A Team Sport…Surrounded by Saints and CEOs.

To register, please email jed@cauxroundtable.net.

The event is free and will last about an hour.

I hope you can join us in honoring Bob.

Why can’t we talk to each other?

Am I the problem, or are you?

Is it us or is it them?

It is a problem of talking or listening.  I talk; do you want to hear me out?  You talk; do I want to hear you out?

The Caux Round Table has asserted that discourse is best for moral governance, which implies both quality talking and quality listening.

Quite overlooked these days, as we grow more and more dismissive of others, are the advantages and ideals put forth by Aristotle and Cicero on friendship, on sociability as a profound human good, as at the core of ethics and morality, not to mention peace and prosperity.

Or what about old social expectations of being gracious and polite to those who are different or who don’t see things our way?  Emily Post, anyone?

Is discourse a skill we must learn? If so, where can we find teachers?

Aristotle and Cicero also left us wonderful treatises on rhetoric – the art of getting others to listen to us.  Both affirmed that in persuasion, the first step is to listen to the other and speak to their concerns and narratives, whatever they might be.

Please join us in-person at 9:00 am on Thursday, October 13, at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul for a round table discussion of why we just can’t get along with one another.  Where is the way forward?  Or, is it back to the mores and habits before the metastasizing of social media?

Perhaps a public statement should be drafted and circulated this election season?

Registration and a light breakfast will begin at 8:30 am.

Cost to attend is $10, which you can pay at the door.

To register, please email Jed at jed@cauxroundtable.net.

The event will last about an hour and a half.

Please join us at 9:00 am (CDT) on Tuesday, September 20 for a Zoom round table on “banana republics.”

An immediate reaction from many Americans shocked over a presidential administration using its security service to “harass” an extroverted and obstreperous political rival was that America’s constitutional republic was in danger.

That republic is 246 years old.  John Glubb, the English pro-consul in the Middle East after World War I, once wrote that the arc of history gives dynasties and great powers roughly 250 years of sway before they decline and then collapse.

Banana republics are usually considered as a peculiar form of government in Central and South America, where the state apparatus is captured by rent seekers profiting from the exploitation of natural resources.  Thus, banana republics have been considered as a pre-capitalist political order.

Yet, perhaps there can also be a post-industrial elitist political order of highly educated, technically proficient, knowledge workers, who extract rents from finance, high tech and “grifting,” with the help of their friends.

What, do you suppose, creates the conditions for banana republics to thrive and what measures could restrain their emergence and undermine their exercise of dominion over society and the economy?

I have long thought after close-up examination of cultures in Mexico, El Salvador and the Philippines that 400 years of Spanish colonialism after the Council of Trent could explain a lot about the politics of those “banana republics.”

The event is free, but space is limited.

To register, please email jed@cauxroundtable.net.