With warm good fellowship, Sherry Howe asked members to introduce their guests.
New member Mary Helmbrecht was introduced by Kim Kirmeier as a nurse of excellence for 50 years with a focus on geriatric family-centric, communicative care.
Tom Farnham auctioned off two tickets to the Gophers game against Maryland with proceeds going to Polio Plus.
Jim Miller introduced our speaker John Taft. John is Vice-Chair of RW Baird. Previously he was CEO of RBC Wealth Management. John is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Organization and Management. He first came to St Paul to work for Mayor George Latimer. John is the great-grandson of President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft and grandson of Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. John has written two books on stewardship in finance.
John rose to speak of how enlightened finance can restore faith in capitalism. He most kindly noted how some of what he wrote was inspired by the book Moral Capitalism written by Club #10 member Stephen Young.
John began with a slide on how America is now in a debate over capitalism: “Elizabeth Warren vows to remake capitalism; the Financial Times writes that business must do its part to reset capitalism; Salesforce founder Marc Benioff says “Capitalism as we know it is dead.” Even cartoons in The New Yorker spook “Late Stage Capitalism”.
John pointed out that free markets powered by robust financial intermediation have lifted nearly 2 billion people out of poverty globally over the past 50 years. Poverty globally is down by 80%. In the US the same system survived the collapse of markets in 2008 and has produced the longest economic recovery ever and a durable bull market. The famous “misery index” (unemployment rate plus inflation rate0 is the lowest it has been since the best years of the 1950s.
The last 50 years here have been as good as ever in history and yet ….
Elizabeth Warren says corporations have no loyalty to workers, customers, or communities, only to their bottom lines. Tom Steyer, a billionaire, says USD companies have attacked the rights of working people and have “bought the government”.
So now we Americans are having an important conversation: what societal goods do we want to support?
Before the 2008 market collapse our mission was growth at all costs, using lots of leverage to get it. But after the collapse, we want to modify capitalism to have growth but not that kind of heedless growth. We want growth married to stability and more fairness.
Trump got elected and worked on enhancing growth but in an Ayn Rand fashion as the man who could stride the globe and accomplish anything he wanted to. He cut the corporate tax rate to make US companies more competitive globally; his administration has deregulated sector after business sector. With low interest rates, those who own financial assets – those already well-to-do and more – have seen the value of their assets rise contributing to greater inequality.
This has triggered opposition to capitalism. Fifty percent of Millennials prefer socialism to what we have. Thomas Piketty now writes that we must exist this phase of capitalism which makes property sacred. The charge is that capitalism is failing to serve broadly enough society’s needs.
John agrees with Ray Dalio that the measure of capitalism should be opportunity. Now we have a continuous spiral up for the have’s and a spiral down for the have-not’s. The message should be about opportunity – helping people move up in life and not just stay in the economic quartile of their parents. That is the American dream; that is an “aspiration based” system.
John called on members to be “warriors for opportunity”.
In Club Updates, Paul Meekin reported that Club #10 was collaboration with the Moundsview/New Brighton club to take maximum advantage of a District matching grant to ECHO in Ft Myers, Florida, get its two wheeled tractors to poor farmers to give them a lift out of poverty. Marvin Anderson came to report that the Rondo Center has a brick for Club #10 in it history walk, will hold an open house for Rotary next Spring, and will organize a safe summer night with support from the Fire and Police Departments. Jennifer Evers invited everyone to come to the WinterSpark Gala at Dick and Nancy Nicholson’s house on Dec 5 and to donate auction items. The District Rotary Foundation Dinner will be on Nov 2 and Club #10 will receive the Second Award for contribution $52,000 to Rotary International. There will be an informal lunch on Nov 5 at the hotel restaurant in place of the regular meeting.
Sergeant-at-Arms Sherry imposed no fines and took happy dollars. The theme was daughters – turning 16 and getting married.
