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 ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', and ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''.

Personal life

Morris was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

. 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 Blackwood is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Gloucester Township, in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

, and completed a bachelor's degree at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

in 1963. Morris married Beverly Gilligan Morris and they had three children.

Career

After graduation, Morris decided to work for the

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

state government, serving as director of the office of economic opportunity from 1965 to 1969. He then moved to the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

government, where he worked as assistant budget director and welfare director. He simultaneously studied at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

, graduating in 1972. With his experience, he was hired by the

state of Washington Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

as secretary of social health services. Morris worked in the government for 12 years in total. After leaving the government, Morris worked as a vice president for international finance at

Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fi ...

. 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). 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 Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...

consulting firm. Morris wrote ''Computer Wars: The Fall of IBM and the Future of Western Technology'' (1993) in collaboration with computer consultant

Charles H. Ferguson Charles Henry Ferguson (born March 24, 1955) is the founder and president of Representational Pictures, Inc., and director and producer of ''No End in Sight'' (2007) and '' Inside Job'' (2010), which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Featur ...

. When Ferguson cofounded the financial software

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...

CapitalThinking Inc. in 1999, Morris soon became vice president for Finance and Administration. Around August 2000, Morris was named Chief Operating Officer. By November 2001, he also served as President of the company. Morris remained with the company until 2004; its business allowed him to see the rise of

credit derivative In finance, a credit derivative refers to any one of "various instruments and techniques designed to separate and then transfer the '' credit risk''"The Economist ''Passing on the risks'' 2 November 1996 or the risk of an event of default of a co ...

trading, leading to his ''Meltdown'' books.

Death

Morris died from complications of dementia in

Hampton, New Hampshire Hampton is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 census. On the Atlantic Ocean coast, Hampton is home to Hampton Beach, a summer tourist destination. The densely populated central part ...

, on December 13, 2021, at age 82, the same day as one of his siblings.

Awards

*2009

Gerald Loeb Award The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...

in the business book category for:

Books

*''A Rabble of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression: 1929–1939'' (2017) *''Comeback: America's New Economic Boom'' (2013) *''The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution'' (2012) *''The Sages: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Paul Volcker, and the Maelstrom of Markets'' (2009) *''The Trillion Dollar Meltdown'' (2008); updated paperback released as ''The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown'' (2008) *''The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center'' (2007) *''The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy'' (2005) *''Money, Greed, and Risk: Why Financial Crises and Crashes Happen'' (1999) *''American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church'' (1997) *''The AARP: America's Most Powerful Lobby and the Clash of Generations'' (1996) *''Computer Wars: The Fall of IBM and the Future of Western Technology'' (1993, with

) *''The Coming Global Boom'' (1990) *''Iron Destinies, Lost Opportunities: The Arms Race Between the United States and the Soviet Union, 1945–1987'' (1988) *''A Time of Passion: America, 1960–1980'' (1985) *''The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment'' (1981)

Film

Morris appears in the 2010 Oscar-winning documentary film ''

Inside Job An insider threat is a malicious threat to an organization that comes from people within the organization, such as employees, former employees, contractors or business associates, who have inside information concerning the organization's security ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Charles R. 1939 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American writers 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century Roman Catholics American Roman Catholics American bankers American economics writers Deaths from dementia in New Hampshire Economic historians Gerald Loeb Award winners for Business Books Historians from New Jersey JPMorgan Chase people New York (state) lawyers Lawyers from Oakland, California Writers from Oakland, California University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni