Gilbert NMO Morris

Gilbert N. M. O. Morris is a Bahamian legal scholar, economist, government advisor, professor, author and publisher.

Early life

Morris was born in Abaco Island, in the Bahamas. He had a strict religious upbringing that later influenced his philosophical work. His mother, a theologian, tutored him intensely and he shared with her a passion for learning and scholarship. His family moved from Abaco to Freeport during his childhood, where he attended the Parish Hall school.

He later studied law, theology, political science, and philosophy at Oxford Brookes University, Harvard University Extension School, Institute for British and Irish Studies (IBIS) at Mansfield College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics.

Financial services work

Morris gained international prominence when in 1998, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) "blacklisted" "International Financial Centres", (IFC) referring to them as "tax havens". Whilst financial services is a critical component of international finance, Morris is one of few scholars/advisors who work in the arena of the structural formalities of Financial Centres. In 1999, Morris, was retained by a number of the most prestigious Swiss Banks to develop a theoretical basis for "cross border regulatory diplomacy" which he presented to the White House Economic Staff in 2001 leading to the US's rejection of the OECD programme based on its "Harmful Tax Practices" report. Having found an ally in then US Treasury Secretary The Hon. Paul O'Neill, Morris and his colleagues also softened the impact of the EU Savings Tax Directive for IFCs, which he called "a non-state institution programme in superstate guise".

Academic work

Morris was Visiting Professor at George Mason University from 1995–2001. He taught: History (The History of Science & Medicine), Philosophy (Wittgenstein), English (Milton, Shakespeare & 19th Century American Literature) and African American Studies. (Morris was known to have taught African American studies as a critique of both the need and desire for the subject as "a subject in search of a discipline".) The History He was invited by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC to become a Smithsonian Associates Lecturer in History and in 1999, gave a series of lectures - The Indelible Template - on the Haitian Revolution. He was Sir William Goodenough Fellow at the Goodenough College in London, where his Inaugural Lecture was: "The Economic Consequences of Peace in the Middle East". He has lectured at Pace University, Columbia, NYU, Georgetown, Bentley College, Johns Hopkins, Fordham Universities for LeadAmerica, largely on the Global Financial System.

Economic Work

Morris was Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bahamas The Hon. Fred A. Mitchell, MP in 2002-2003. In 2003, he was commissioned by StarCapital/CITIC and the Vice Premier of China - Madam Wu - to conduct the largest Study of The Economics and Logistics of Multi-modal Shipping and Distribution Centres between China and the Caribbean Basin. Morris said of the study in an interview with Jones Communications: "It remains confidential, however, I can say that we confirmed the principle that small nations must triangulate on a cost, tax and financing basis to develop an effective trade platform. Second, it revealed nearly $200 billion in 'pent-up' opportunities for trade in the region". 

As an Economist, Morris, who uses a "forensic historical approach", has had a series of firsts. In 2000 he wrote: "The West Indies scholar, no matter his capacity to forecast global phenomena, will do so largely in obscurity; unheard by the larger world, and regarded by his countrymen with genteel amusement; if not befuddlement". However, in 2001, at a public meeting in Nassau, (and repeated in 2005) Professor Morris forecasted that "In the next 5 years, I put it to you that Oil Prices will rise to $80 and above $150 per barrel." Then in 2003, Morris, again in a public lecture for the Rotary Club said the following: "I suggest that the US government will continue its 'weak dollar policy', and therefore, it is prudent that all governments of the region using dollars either directly or through an exchange rate, should now convert 10% of their reserves to gold and all of their special drawing rights (SDRs) at the IMF. This would offset the coming losses in value in their reserve positions." At the time gold was $319 an ounce. 

In late 2008, in the heat of the financial meltdown, Morris wrote an article: "Obamanomics" in which he warned that the new administration should neither bail out the banks or the motor car companies. He said: "The car companies should go into bankruptcy and there reposition themselves. And there should be no rescue of the banks. There are over 8,000 banks in the US, and 4,000 must die. They do not have a liquidity problem. They have a balance sheet problem. They are worthless and bailing them out will hide that fact and prolong the pain."

From 2006-2008 Morris was Senior Economic Advisor to Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Hon. Floyd B. Hall, where he led a mission to Singapore, Hong Kong and Wall Street for the Ministry.

Advisory and diplomacy

In 2009, Morris was appointed Special Advisor and Envoy for the Premier, the Hon. Galmo Williams for whom Morris undertook two Diplomacy missions to London where he called on the House of Lords, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, during the Constitutional Crisis of 2009 in Turks and Caicos, prior to the Suspension of the 2006 Constitution. (The mission also called on the Liberal Democrats and William Hague, now Foreign Minister in the UK Government.)

More recently, in 2009, Morris served as Chairman of TC Invest - the Turks and Caicos National Investment Agency - where he developed a comprehensive reform agenda both for the agency and for the Turks and Caicos Economy, drafting legislation also for a Reserve Bank. In March 2009, in an interview with WIV Channel 4 in Turks and Caicos. Morris said, "In the truest sense, we do not have an economy. What we have is a windfall system. We do not have a transactional nexus of self-generating economic activity. As such, it is necessary to re-design the economy and that is what our reforms are intended to do". Morris produced hundreds of much sought after papers on financial service centre design and development, regulatory arbitrage and the global financial system

Law work

Morris is a Member of Gray's Inn in London, was a Visiting Clerk for the United States Court of Appeals, and at George Mason University in 1998–1999 he was the Director of the African-American Studies program - where he also won a Technology Across the Curriculum Grant. He is Chairman of CAICOS Brothers LP, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of the TCI Free Press and is the Chief Economist of the West Indies Research Corporation, a think tank concerned with Political Economy. Morris has written six books: In Defense of National Sovereignty, (An essay on "smart nation strategies") The Hidden Costs: what Children owe to Parents, The Triptych Papers: Pathways Through Orientalisation, On Becoming a Superstudent, Rescue America (with LEAD-America Founder Chris Salamone ) and Shifting Ground in Sinking Sand: The G20 Pogrom Against International Financial Centres.

Publisher

In 2006, Morris purchased the Turks and Caicos Free Press. He set about turning the newspaper around, adding a permanent Editorial section and increasing its readership by almost 2500% and its revenues by over 1500%. The newspaper focused primarily on business, investment and international affairs, and was the primary source for commentary during the TCI Commission of Inquiry, which led to the fall of the Government of Michael Misick, in the Spring of 2009.

In 2010, Morris was joined by Mrs. Christa Reckhorn and together they drove the paper into another phase of development and success. In 2010, the Turks and Caicos Free Press was acquired by E. J. Saunders the CEO of Digicel TCI.