Category: News

The Caux Round Table is now offering educational certificates, supported by short video modules, on aspects of moral capitalism.  The certificates are honorary and provided at no cost.

The modules have been grouped into nine playlists, available on our YouTube page.

Each playlist presents various insights into moral capitalism.  The presentations provide my thoughts and observations on implications, conundrums, possibilities and negative externalities associated with capitalism, as we experience it.

After you watch all the videos on a playlist, please click here and follow the instructions to send us your thoughts and so receive in the mail a written certificate.

A separate certificate can be obtained for each playlist.

For additional information, please contact us at jed@cauxroundtable.net.

I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity and will gain insights relevant to your career and understanding of our world of possibilities, both good and bad.

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

–Tariffs versus Free Trade

–Religion and Human Capital

–Information as a Good

–Can Anyone Control the Economy?

–Human Capital in the Era of Globalization

–Boeing Has Lost its Way

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’s the July issue of Pegasus.

In this edition, we include 3 pieces.

First, we have an article from our fellow, Michael Wright, on truth and AI.

Secondly, Michael Hartoonian includes his most recent piece, “The Lamp of Truth: Our Melancholy Search for the Examined Life.”

Lastly, we include some information and photos from our Dayton Award event, which took place on July 17 at the Minneapolis Club.  The awardee was Liz Collin of Alpha News for her documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis.

As always, I would be most interested in your thoughts and feedback.

Here’s the June issue of Pegasus.

In this edition, Michael Hartoonian, a teacher, reflects on the importance of teachers.  For moral capitalism to thrive, for moral government to bring civility and well-being, teaching is needed.

Secondly, for four years now, the Caux Round Table has sought to learn more of certain actions taken by the Prophet Muhammad, his teaching by personal example, by showing us, in word and deed, how to respect others of a different faith.

I am referring to his covenants to respect and protect Christians and Jews.

In that light, we include the PowerPoint presentation of Professor Ibrahim Zein of the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, reporting on his research into the covenants given by the Prophet.  Professor Zein was assisted in this research by Ahmed El-Wakil, now completing a Ph.D. at Oxford.

We also include the complimentary PowerPoint slides of Dean Recep Senturk, also of the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, on the concept of Adamiyyah in Islamic thought.

I would be most interested in your thoughts and feedback.

The Caux Round Table Principles for Moral Government reflect the special legacy of Minnesota leadership in seeking the common good.  I believe it was Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey who, in 1861, responding to the call of newly inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln, committed the first military regiment to serve the Union cause in the Civil War.  Minnesota lawyer Frank B. Kellogg, as U.S. Secretary of State, in 1928, took the lead with Aristide Briand of France to establish by treaty a principle in international law on the illegality of aggression.  Later, Harold Stassen and Hubert Humphrey provided national and international leadership for the United Nations and the Peace Corps.  Hubert Humphrey’s demand at the 1948 national convention of the Democratic Party that racial segregation in the U.S. must end spoke moral truth to power.

For 2023, our board has selected from among those nominated Liz Collin of Alpha News to receive the Dayton Award for her documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis.  In recommending her for the award, she was described as focused on mission, community and government impact, as well as having the vision and prudence of a level 5 leader.  She was credited with having a “powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will.”  “Her ambition is first and foremost for the cause of truth, not for herself.”

Pursuant to its principles for moral government, the Caux Round Table believes that discourse ethics should guide application of public power, as follows:

Public power, however allocated by constitutions, referendums or laws, shall rest its legitimacy in processes of communication and discourse among autonomous moral agents who constitute the community to be served by the government.  Free and open discourse, embracing independent media, shall not be curtailed, except to protect legitimate expectations of personal privacy, sustain the confidentiality needed for the proper separation of powers or for the most dire of reasons relating to national security.

Accordingly, the Caux Round Table has proposed a code of ethics for journalists, which proposes, in part:

Journalism is a quasi-public trust encumbered with fiduciary duties.  Journalism, as a business, provides a notable good of great merit for society.  News, information and well-argued opinion constitute a vital part of a society’s social capital.  Inaccurate news, false information and propaganda degrade a society’s capacity for finding common ground, mutual respect and tolerance.  The moral character of a society flourishes with responsible discourse to provide checks on extremism, stupidity and political authority.  Journalism is not entertainment.

It is the intangible of leadership that counts most for moral success.  There are essential abilities required to lead – integrity, courage, compassion, respect and responsibility:

Integrity is being honest and having strong moral principles.  Having integrity means you are true to yourself and would do nothing that demeans or dishonors you.  Integrity makes you believable, as you know and act on your values.

Courage is strength in the face of adversity and upholding what is right, regardless of what others may think or do.  Courage enables you to take a stand, honor commitments and guide the way.  Courage is a necessary element of responsibility.

Compassion is having concern for another.  It is feeling for and not feeling with the other.  Compassion is concern of others in a more global sense.

Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone.  Leaders ought to be respected and they ought to respect those with whom they work.  Demonstrating this perspective is essential to motivate and inspire others.

Responsibility is acting on commitment, will, determination and obligation.  Responsibility implies the satisfactory performance of duties, the adequate discharge of obligations and the trustworthy care for or disposition of possessions.  It is being willing and able to act in a life-enhancing manner.  Responsibility is expected of self, as well as from others.

In 2019, the first Dayton Award was given to Douglas M. Baker, Jr. of Ecolab, in 2020 to Andrew Cecere of U.S. Bank and Don and Sondra Samuels for leadership in the community, in 2021 to police chiefs Medaria Arradondo of Minneapolis and Todd Axtell of St. Paul for leadership in public service and in 2022, to Mary Kowalski and Kris Kowalski Christiansen of Kowalski’s Markets and to Kyle Smith of Reell Precision Manufacturing for leadership in business.

Here’s the May issue of Pegasus.

In this edition, we include 2 pieces.

First, Steve Young introduces the concept of moneyism and how it relates to money and wealth.

Secondly, Michael Hartoonian includes his first article in a series on the causes of wealth creation and the reasons for poverty.

Lastly, we lighten the mood a bit with some cartoons.

As usual, I would be most interested in your thoughts and feedback.

My apologies for being late in sending you this report on the 2024 Georgetown Lecture at the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Arabic and Islam (PISAI) in Rome.  On my way home from Rome, I picked up Covid and so have been rather lethargic these past 2 weeks.

Perhaps the best way for me to report briefly and effectively to you about the unexpected success of the presentations at the lecture is to give you excerpts from my report to Pope Francis.

But first, I want to affirm my appreciation of the leadership of Silvano Cardinal Tomasi over these past 4 years in having insight into the importance of these overlooked recensions of covenants made 1,300 years ago by the Prophet Muhammad and so in constantly encouraging us at the Caux Round Table to pursue a close study of the covenants.

I also thank most enthusiastically Father Diego Cucarella, President of PISAI, for asking our colleagues Professor Ibrahim Zein and Dean Recep Senturk to speak about the covenants and their importance for us today at the Georgetown lecture.

Especially given the appreciative audience reception of the presentations by Prof. Zein and Dean Senturk, I thank them for their dedicated intellectual leadership, of such benefit to all of us and for their selfless collaboration with others in our study group.

As I reported to Pope Francis:

On May 16, our colleagues, Professor Ibrahim Zein and Dean Recep Senturk, spoke at the 2024 Georgetown Lecture at the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Arabic and Islam. … Though he could not attend personally, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, kindly asked Monsignor Simon Kassas of his office to attend the lecture.

In his presentation at PISAI, Professor Zein concluded that the recensions of the covenants that have come down to us are not forgeries.

Therefore, it is not unreasonable for us to infer that study of those texts will put all of us more directly in contact with the thinking of the Prophet in his time.

Dean Recep then shared with the audience his research on the concept of Adamiyyah, an Islamic universalism, an Islamic humanism, implicit in the teachings of three schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

Dean Recep quoted Sarakhsi, an Islamic scholar of the Hanafi School of Jurisprudence (D. 1090):

“When God created human beings, He honored them with intelligence and the capacity to carry responsibilities and rights (dhimmah: legal personality), so they would be capable of fulfilling their obligations and the rights entrusted to them.  Then, He granted them the right to inviolability, freedom and property, so they could continue their lives in such a way that they can fulfill the responsibilities they carry.  These responsibilities, freedom and right to property, are inherent to individuals from the moment of their birth and the discerning and non-discerning alike are equal in this regard.  Thus, the capacity to bear rights and responsibilities is inherent in individuals from birth and all individuals, regardless of their level of intellectual development, are equal in this respect.”

In response to a question, Dean Recep noted the alignment of Adamiyyah with Qur’anic guidance never to forget the mercy and compassion of God.

The presentations by Professor Zein and Dean Recep confirm the implications inherent in our study of the covenants of the Prophet that such texts present an opportunity for dialogue and engagement with our Islamic colleagues, both Sunni and Shi’a, on the deepest possible understanding of Islam in its formative decades.

I write to you from Rome where yesterday, our chairman emeritus and myself, with our Caux Round Table fellows, Silvano Cardinal Tomasi, John Dalla Costa, Dean Recep Senturk and Professor Ibrahim Zein, made public a press release and statement on the use of covenants for reconciliation among the faithful within the family of the Abrahamic religions.

Yesterday was most significant for releasing a statement on seeking peace in the Holy Land.  It was the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, a devastating experience for many Palestinians, leading to decades of alienation and conflict between Palestinians and the Jews of Israel.

The world has watched, over many decades, failure after failure to heal the wounds of fear and conflict in the Holy Land and bring about a just and lasting reconciliation among parties in conflict.

Perhaps, therefore, a new approach is needed.  Neither war, nor sovereign claims to territory, nor conferences and diplomatic interventions, have been successful.

Finding a basis for mutual respect and appreciation of the other is needed, as Pope Francis proposed in his last encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.  In this context, the precedent of the Prophet Muhammad giving covenants for himself and his followers to keep until the end of time to respect and protect Christians and Jews becomes of great significance.