Resisting ideological labels, he has extensive experience in the government and banking industry. He criticized the "goodwill" of policymakers and the cost of healthcare, and predicted the 2008 financial crisis.

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Charles R. Morris is a former government official, banker, and self-taught economics historian. He is a prolific, unconventional writer who has challenged traditional politics and economics. Pious, died on Monday in Hampton, New Hampshire, at the age of 82.

His daughter Catherine Morris said the cause was a complication of dementia.

After serving as Director of Welfare Programs under Mayor John V. Lindsay and Secretary of New York City’s Department of Social and Health Services, Mr. Morris wrote his iconic first book "The Price of Goodwill: New York City and the Freedom Experiment" (1980 year). Washington state.

This book is an analysis of "The Emperor's New Clothes" on how the Lindsay government unfettered investment in social welfare programs to prevent civil strife from bringing the city to the brink of bankruptcy, and classifies Mr. Morris as a neoconservative.

But as a law school graduate with no formal economics training, he ignored the label of indiscretion.

Although his 15 non-fiction books often revisit frequently mentioned topics - including the Great Depression, national tycoons, health care costs, the Cold War arms race, and the political evolution of the Roman Catholic Church - he has infused them with Inspiring details, provocative insight and smooth narrative.

"The price of goodwill" (1981) is not so much a profligate cliché of liberalism, but rather an expression of disappointment that benevolent officials have been helpless with ineffective plans. He concluded that the best and smartest people in the government, as well as the accomplices outside, think that if the day of liquidation comes, they will not be supervised.

Steven R. Weisman wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Mr. Morris, as a former city budget official, was the vice president of international finance at Chase Manhattan Bank at the time, and he was more inclined to increase opinions than to blame.

"He did not excuse the current employer or the former employer," Mr. Weisman wrote.

In the book, Mr. Morris quoted Peter Goldmark, Jr., the head of the state budget at the time: “Remember the 14th century and the plague? Do those people stand on the docks in Genoa or Venice and watch the rats get off the boat? Pouring down, don't you understand?"

"Yes," Mr. Morris wrote suspiciously, "it is possible."

He would also conceal Thomas Carlyle's description of economics as a "frustrating science" by injecting attractive gold nuggets.

In reviewing Mr. Morris’ "Moments of Passion: America from 1960-1980" (1984) for the "Times" book review, Michael Kinsley wrote: "Some of the most vivid moments in this book Appeared when he stopped hurriedly describing from his time as a poverty alleviation project and prison manager."

Mr. Kingsley added: “In Owen Kristol’s famous definition of a neoconservative, he was indeed'kidnapped by reality',” but concluded, “In general, his book exudes generosity. And goodwill distinguish it from the typical sour neoconservative creed."

Charles Richard Morris was born on October 23, 1939 in Oakland, California, to Charles B. and Mildred (Reed) Morris. His father was a technician in a printing ink factory; his mother was a housewife.

After attending the Saviour Theological Seminary in Blackwood, New Jersey, Mr. Morris graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in journalism in 1963. He served as the director of the New Jersey Office of Economic Opportunity from 1965 to 1969.

In 1972, while working for the New York City Government, he received a degree from the University's School of Law. He was hired by Washington State because he was the city’s assistant budget director and welfare director.

Edward K. Hamilton, the first deputy mayor during the Lindsay administration, praised Mr. Morris for his service to the city and his ability as a writer, saying that he disagrees with some of the conclusions and suggestions in the "price of goodwill".

Mr. Hamilton said: “Many of its remedies, expressed or implied, even though theoretically desirable, are not feasible in the real world,” considering the complex network of intersecting state, local, and federal authorities and covering up all of them. . "

Mr. Morris later served as the director of the Villa Institute of Justice in London.

His wife Beverly Gilligan Morris and their sons Michael and Matthew survived. Their daughter Catherine Morris; and four grandchildren. On Monday, her sister Marianne Donovan also passed away. Mr. Morris lives in Hampton.

His other books include "A Crowd of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression: 1929-1939 (2017)"; "Making a Comeback: America's New Economic Prosperity" (2013); "The Saints: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Paul Walker and the Market Whirlpool" (2009); "The Trillion Dollar Collapse" (2008); "Surgeons: The Life and Death of Top Heart Centers" (2007) Cost of care; “American Catholics: The Saints and Sinners Who Build America’s Strongest Church” (1997); and “Tycoons: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and Morgan How Chase invented the American super economy" (2005).

Todd G. Buchholz, the former economic adviser to President George H.W. Bush, wrote in the Times book review of "tycoon", "I admire him for his in-depth study of big tycoons. The driving force of the depression competition theory, the sleeves are rolled up, and the dirt and dusty tumbleweed of academic research are dug up fairly."

Mr. Morris seldom allows himself to be stereotyped, he will expose what he calls conservative traditional views, that is, work that raises the minimum wage cost. He complained in the Jesuit magazine "America" ​​that America's existing healthcare system benefits the wealthiest Americans. In an interview with the business blog bobmorris.biz in 2012, he criticized the business school.

"Business schools tend to focus on topics that fit on the blackboard, so they put too much emphasis on organization and finance," Mr. Morris said. "Until recently, they almost ignored manufacturing. I think many of the troubles in the 1970s and 1980s and more recently in the 2000s can be traced directly to the prejudices of business schools."

Mr. Morris accurately predicted the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns and its ensuing in The Trillion Dollar Crash: Easy Money, Gamble and Big Credit Crash (2008), which won the Gerald Loeb Business Reporting Award. The coming global economic recession.

He wrote this book in 2007, when most experts were still optimistic about the economy. He also starred in the Oscar-winning documentary "Inside Job" (2010) about the 2008 financial crisis.

At the beginning of 2007, Mr. Morris wrote to his publisher, Peter Osnos, the founder of public affairs books: “I think we are heading towards the mother of collapse, and I think this will happen in the summer of 2008. ." "

Mr. Osnos recalled that after the book was published, “George Soros and Paul Walker called me and asked me,'Who is this Morris and why did he do this so early? All right?'"