http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/september.htm

Man on a Mission: He Made a Fortune When He Sold BuyDomains – Now Michael Mann Wants to Change the World With WashingtonVC

Michael Mann is driven. He wants to make money – lots of money. Of course, that doesn’t exactly make him unique. The thing that’s different about Mann, who has already made tens of millions of dollars, is that his primary reason for chasing greenbacks is to give them away. He’s been doing it for years through the well-known Grassroots.org foundation he started and he will step up his efforts with Make Change! Trust through its new website that just launched.

The energetic entrepreneur/philanthropist has been able to support those efforts because he is an extremely tough competitor in the business world. He co-founded BuyDomains.com and quickly built the aftermarket sales venue into an industry powerhouse. That did not sit well with everyone in the business. In fact in a DN Journal Cover Story that was published four years ago this month, our headline asked Superhero or Arch Villain? The Secret Identity of Super Mann.

My point I was trying to make is not that we should get away with accounting, but it being “the only line of defence” seems to be not enough. We need more people who audit the auditors (as you do!).

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kimrennin

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Can the partners in North, Hegerl and Cicerone certify that these statements meet GAAP? Of course they can’t

You have too much faith in the financial world (I know, it is your background). The question is not if they can, but if they should. Of course they could if they wanted to, but they shouldn’t. Remember Enron? Remember Arthur Andersen? The problem both in the financial world and the science world is not that there is no accounting, but that the accounting has it weak points and fails (or can be made to fail). This is amplified by the lack of knowledge and interest by a larger public. And the total lack of consequences until a (local as in Enron or large as in world economy) crash.

Steve: Please read the blog before making statements like this. I’ve discussed the Enron failure on a number of occasions and (Bre-X). Such failures of disclosure and due diligence interest me. I’ve always been very clear that even audited statements are not foolproof protection against misconduct. But they are a form of protection. In my opinion, without such protection, such misconduct would be more frequent. Please don’t confuse that position with the trivial position that you attribute to me.

Of course, the mark-to-market suspension has come under fierce attacks from skeptics. One, Octavio Marenzi, was quoted in Business Week as saying “Financial statements would essentially lose all meaning…”. True, Business Week is not a peer-reviewed journal, but so far as I know Mr Marenzi’s not Canadian.

Steve rightly exhorts us not to speculate on motives and it’s possible I am being over-generous in ascribing vision to Dr Mann’s. Perhaps the bailout plan was inspired by experience in the climatological sciences, with the thinking going along the lines of: “…if a bunch of academics can get away with it, surely we Masters of the Universe can do the same….”

I knew that the climate science community’s influence on geopolitical affairs has grown in recent years but I didn’t realise they had become that powerful.

When all the latest Mannian shenanigans have been reviewed and compiled, I hope you will prepare a summary highlighting the most egregious departures from acceptable standards with a short explanation of why each matters.

Re: Jeff Alberts (#4), When writing a paper, there is always a little devil who temps one to “make sh** up” but it is best to think twice about such temptings, because it is going to end up in print. At least I think twice about it.

And the conclusion of your thoughts is exactly what?

Forget PCA or RegEM, this is an embarrassment that even a child could understand.

The only pity is that there is no SEC in climate science.