Maris was a French economist and shareholder in Charlie Hebdo. He served as a member of the Bank of France's General Council, NBC News reported. And he wrote for Charlie Hebdo under the moniker Uncle Bernard, according to French daily newspaper L'Humanité.

L'Humanité previously reviewed some of his work: "In volume 1 of this 'anti-manual,' which appeared in 2003, Bernard Maris, a culturally refined and unorthodox economist, and Charlie Hebdo ('Uncle Bernard') chronicler to boot, broke down the ductile 'laws' of economics: laws of supply, demand, of 'pure and perfect' competition, etc. He showed that the economy is not an automatic system imposing its needs on man but that it is a human construct characterised by power play and by political domination, imitative behaviour etc."

Maris was an admirer of the liberal economist John Maynard Keynes, according to Le Monde. He often criticized other economists for the perpetuation of economic concepts that he claimed led to excess.