Charles R. Morris
tight headshot of an older white man with short white hair
Born
Charles Richard Morris

(1939-10-23)October 23, 1939
Oakland, California, U.S.
DiedDecember 13, 2021(2021-12-13) (aged 82)
Hampton, New Hampshire, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School
Occupations
  • Lawyer
  • journalist
  • author
SpouseBeverly Gilligan
Children3

Charles Richard Morris (October 23, 1939 – December 13, 2021) was an American lawyer, banker, and author. He wrote fifteen books, and was a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly.

Personal life

Morris was born in Oakland, California. His father Charles B. Morris worked as a technician in an ink factory, and his mother Mildred was a housewife. Morris attended the Mother of the Savior Seminary in Blackwood, New Jersey,[1] and completed a bachelor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963.[2]

Morris married Beverly Gilligan Morris and they had three children.[1][3]

Career

After graduation, Morris decided to work for the New Jersey state government, serving as director of the office of economic opportunity from 1965 to 1969. He then moved to the New York City government, where he worked as assistant budget director and welfare director. He simultaneously studied at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, graduating in 1972. With his experience, he was hired by the state of Washington[1] as secretary of social health services. Morris worked in the government for 12 years in total.[2]

After leaving the government, Morris worked as a vice president for international finance at Chase Manhattan Bank. While in this job, Morris drew on his city government experience to publish his first book, The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment (1981).[1] After moving to other areas of the Corporate Banking group, Morris left and worked for fifteen years as Managing Director of Devonshire Partners, a financial technology consulting firm.[4]

Morris wrote Computer Wars: The Fall of IBM and the Future of Western Technology (1993) in collaboration with computer consultant Charles H. Ferguson.[5] When Ferguson cofounded the financial software startup company CapitalThinking Inc. in 1999,[4] Morris soon became vice president for Finance and Administration.[6] Around August 2000, Morris was named Chief Operating Officer.[7] By November 2001, he also served as President of the company.[4] Morris remained with the company until 2004; its business allowed him to see the rise of credit derivative trading, leading to his Meltdown books.[2]

Death

Morris died from complications of dementia in Hampton, New Hampshire, on December 13, 2021, at age 82, the same day as one of his siblings.[1]

Awards

Morris, Charles R. (2008). The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-563-4.[8]

Books

  • A Rabble of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression: 1929–1939 (2017)[9]
  • Comeback: America's New Economic Boom (2013)[10][11]
  • The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution (2012)[12]
  • The Sages: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Paul Volcker, and the Maelstrom of Markets (2009)[13]
  • The Trillion Dollar Meltdown (2008);[14][8] updated paperback released as The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown (2008)[15]
  • The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center (2007)[16]
  • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy (2005)[17]
  • Money, Greed, and Risk: Why Financial Crises and Crashes Happen (1999)[18]
  • American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church (1997)[3]
  • The AARP: America's Most Powerful Lobby and the Clash of Generations (1996)[19]
  • Computer Wars: The Fall of IBM and the Future of Western Technology (1993, with Charles H. Ferguson)[20][5]
  • The Coming Global Boom (1990)[21]
  • Iron Destinies, Lost Opportunities: The Arms Race Between the United States and the Soviet Union, 1945–1987 (1988)[22]
  • A Time of Passion: America, 1960–1980 (1985)[23]
  • The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment (1981)[24]

Film

Morris appears in the 2010 Oscar-winning documentary film Inside Job.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Roberts, Sam (December 13, 2021). "Charles R. Morris, Iconoclastic Author on Economics, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Hill, Miriam (October 17, 2011). "No Meltdowns for Morris as a Writer or Investor". Penn Law Journal. 46 (2): 41–2.
  3. 1 2 Morris, Charles (1997). American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church. New York City: Vintage Books. pp. x. ISBN 9780307797919.
  4. 1 2 3 "About Us". CapitalThinking. Archived from the original on November 1, 2001.
  5. 1 2 COMPUTER WARS | Kirkus Reviews. 1992.
  6. ↑ "About Us". CapitalThinking. Archived from the original on April 7, 2000.
  7. ↑ "About Us – The people". CapitalThinking. Archived from the original on August 19, 2000.
  8. 1 2 "Loeb Winners". UCLA Anderson School of Management. June 29, 2009. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  9. ↑ Mihm, Stephen (April 21, 2017). "What Caused the Depression? A New Overview Spreads the Blame". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  10. ↑ Morris, Charles R. (2013). Comeback : America's new economic boom (First ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-61039-336-2. OCLC 823044786.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ↑ COMEBACK | Kirkus Reviews. 2013.
  12. ↑ Dylla, H. Frederick (2014). "The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution , Charles R. Morris, PublicAffairs, 2012. $28.99 (384 pp.). ISBN 978-1-58648-828-4". Physics Today. 67 (5): 51. doi:10.1063/PT.3.2384. ISSN 0031-9228.
  13. ↑ "The Sages: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Paul Volcker and the Maelstrom of Markets". The Barnes & Noble Review. August 5, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  14. ↑ "A Beast Bred on Wall Street". Business Week. April 17, 2009. Archived from the original on January 5, 2010. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
  15. ↑ Fitzgerald, Michael (October 9, 2008). "The 2 Trillion Dollar Meltdown Man". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  16. ↑ Chen, Pauline W. (October 28, 2007). "Heart and Soul". The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  17. ↑ Buchholz, Todd G. (October 2, 2005). "'The Tycoons': Benefactors of Great Wealth". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  18. ↑ Samuelson, Robert J. (November 14, 1999). "Is the Party Over?". archive.nytimes.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  19. ↑ Krugman, Paul (October 20, 1996). "Demographics and Destiny". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  20. ↑ Ferguson, Charles H.; Morris, Charles R. (1993). Computer wars: the fall of IBM and the future of global technology (1st ed.). New York: Times Books. ISBN 0-8129-2300-6. OCLC 29611938.
  21. ↑ Morris, Charles R. (1990). The coming global boom : how to benefit now from tomorrow's dynamic world economy. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-05898-3. OCLC 20992990.
  22. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Iron Destinies, Lost Opportunities: The Arms Race Between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., 1945–1987 by Charles R. Morris, Author HarperCollins Publishers $22.95 (544p) ISBN 978-0-06-039082-2". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  23. ↑ Kinsley, Michael (March 25, 1984). "Moralism, Pragmatism and Irrationality". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  24. ↑ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (July 24, 1980). "Books of The Times". The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
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