Gilbert NMO Morris
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Gilbert N. M. O. Morris is a legal scholar, economist, government advisor, author and publisher.
Morris gained international prominence when in 1998, the [1]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 [2] 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". Morris has produced hundreds of much sought after papers on financial service centre design and development, regulatory arbitrage and the global financial system [3] [1] Gilbert NMO Morris was born in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas,[4] and studied varied subjects including law, theology, political science, and philosophy at Oxford Brookes University, Harvard University Extension School, Institute for British and Irish Studies (IBIS) at Mansfield College at Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He has been a Carmelite monk, a Member of Gray's Inns of Court in London, a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals, and a professor at George Mason University from 1995 to 2001; in 1998–1999 he was the director of the African-American Studies program at GMU.[5] He is Chairman of a Private Equity Fund CAICOS Brothers LP, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of the TCI Free Press[6] and is the Chief Economist of the Landfall Centre, a think tank concerned with international trade.[4]
