Here's a nice little essay by Ray Pellechia, on the "official" NY Stock Exchange blog, suggesting that Harry Markopolos, who had figured out the Madoff scam a long time ago, would have been a lot more effective had he blogged about what he found, instead of doing what he actually did in 2005 (i.e., sending a detailed, 19-page memo to the SEC. Pellechia writes:
Certainly, any failure to convince others was not due to lack of effort. Perhaps Mr. Markopolos lacked only an effective medium to communicate his warning. Here's a thought experiment: What would have happened if Mr. Markopolos had blogged his analysis? That is, what if he had posted the entire piece on a blog, under his name or a pseudonym?
We'll never know the answer, but here's what I think might have followed:
• The post would have quickly spread far and wide among traders and investors. It's a small Street, as the saying goes, and an analysis raising questions about the investment results of a prominent name such as Madoff would have sent e-mails flying.
• Those who had money invested with Mr. Madoff -- or who were thinking of investing -- would have done the same math that Mr. Markopolos had done, undoubtedly reaching the same conclusion. The resulting rush to pull money out and the avoidance of adding new money would have meant a faster end to the alleged Ponzi scheme.