Rating: 
Summary: "The Jungle" for our times
Review: The Informant is a stunning review of the attempt by ADM, and other companies, to control the lysine market. The book is well written, exciting, detailed and fun to read. An amazing accomplishment, given the seemingly dry nature of the material. But more significant than the book's literary characteristics, it exposes a dark side of our 'free market' economy. One is left with questions - "How many other cases of market fixing have gone undetected? How many billions of dollars has this cost the American consumer and tax payer?"I wish high school and college teachers would consider using this book as supplemental material in an Economics or Social Studies course, as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was once used. This story is more current, factual and exciting, and might give students an appreciation for why we need regulatory agencies. Capitalism has given us many benefits, they are trumpeted every day in the financial news, and we see them in our standard of living. But capitalism brings us problems as well. Managing those problems is largely the job of government, and an educated population is essential for a democracy to operate properly. The Informant is a valuable resource in providing a balanced perspective. Kurt Eichenwald has done us a great service. Those folksy ADM commercials ("Supermarket to the World") will never again sound so benign.
Rating:
Summary: Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction!!
Review: After 30-40 people review a book, it's difficult to find anything much new to say except I highly recommend this book. Kurt Eichenwald deserves many accolades and certainly has my respect for his ability to sift through years worth of tapes/court transcripts/personal interviews, etc. and culling out the critical aspects for the reader. As everyone else has said, the book holds the reader's interest from the first page. Including aspects such as weather, manner of dress, etc. also gives the book a human quality a dry news type report would lack. This case had more twists and turns than your average fictional thriller. I agree with the reviewer below that this should be required reading at universities (presented as how NOT to run a business, of course). It's a little scary when you think about how much power many big companies yield politically and financially and how spinless many of our politicians are in dealing with them. The in-fighting among law enforcement/prosecutors at DOJ is interesting as well. Oh my, the egos of prosecutors. Fortunately, the case was brought to conclusion in spite of it. Even those who are familiar with the case or followed the scattered news reports which appeared at the time all this occurred would enjoy this book. It's a real page-turner.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like fiction...
Review: What a great read! Kurt Eichenwald did a fantastic job of telling us about one of the largest antitrust cases in US history. It's about the Archer Daniels Midland Company and their involvement with price fixing. Mr. Eichenwald manages to put into order hundreds of hours of interviews, materials, and such and weaves them into a wonderful work of non-fiction that is so gripping you will not be able to put it down. By relating the story as if it is a work of fiction it is easier to understand the facts of the entire case, which in turn was actually two cases in one. There's suspense, intrigue, twists and turns of all sorts. In fact, the story does get confusing at times, but it's not difficult to keep up. The Informant is a page-turner, well worth the read, and extremely entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, needs trimming
Review: ADM, advertising mainstay of the Sunday morning political shows, and pervasive political donor, is a highly competitive company. Its efforts to establish and maintain a price-fixing scheme would continue today if not for a high-ranking, maladjusted whistle blower. The book is as much about ADM as it is about Mark Whitacre, the VP who turned ADM over to the FBI. Like Michael Mann's "The Insider" (about RJR), it explores the unusual psyche of the whistle blower and the sometimes skewed moral compass that drives them. That said, this is a wordy, overly desriptive book. Blessed with an abundance of evidence and extraordinary access to individuals, Eichenwald is determined to share every scrap with the reader. Whether its weather forecasts, radio stations, or family minutiae, no detail is too small to be mentioned. Yet some exploration is missing. Why did ADM's lysine competitors cooperate in the price-fixing? They were aware of the illegal nature of their agreements, yet none felt like they could resist. What aspects of business culture permit or encourage this type of collusion? This is a strong story, and Eichenwald has expended plenty of shoe leather running down details. It could be stronger, but is a worthy read.
Rating:
Summary: A gripping read about greed and gullibility
Review: "The Informant" reads like one of the better John Grisham novels...it is an exciting account of a company whose internal credo was "customers are the enemy". Influential chief executives knew how to bend the rules, but were bested by the rising young executive, Mark Whitacre. As it turns out, he was playing the best con game in town (and sometimes trying to play out the lead role in a true version of "The Firm"!). With his large cast of real-life characters including many from the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company and the federal government, I wasn't sure how Kurt Eichenwald was going to pull off such a gripping, cohesive story about a major corporate scandal in 564 pages, but he did it. I will be astounded if this book doesn't morph into a movie. A gripping book for anyone with an interest in corporate America and one that is certain to be especially eye-opening for graduate students and post-docs in the biological and agricultural sciences. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Surrealism incarnate...
Review: Even with firsthand involvement on this matter, reading The Informant remains a surreal experience as it relates to the minds, thoughts, and actions of bright, successful and desperate people. The maze is never-ending: from the double twisted plots regarding lysine, to the repeated lies and evasions of Goodacre, greed, bribery, and confused FBI agents trying to make sense of it all...this story will astound and mystify at once.
Rating:
Summary: Truth is better then Fiction!
Review: WOW! This was a gripping page turning story not only of corporate malfeasance but of a entirely depraved individual who lied, cheated and stole his way through life. No fictional character could possible be as twisted or pathological as the ADM executive who informed on his company all the while stealing them blind. It is nice to see a warts and all story of the investigation. The original FBI Agents come across as hard working and determined but who are blindsided by their witness. A truly fascinating story!.
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Summary: Lysine larceny-an oustanding book.
Review: I had purchased The Informant as a resource book for my next novel little knowing what an outstanding story lay within. I was quick to realize that the non-fiction book that I was reading read like a fiction thriller. Many times, as author Kurt Eichenwald vividly described the process of how the FBI groomed their informant, I realized that I was feeling both tense and anxious. I know that only a very powerful story could invoke those emotions in me. Needless to say The Informant proved an excellent book for me to read. The bonus for me was that I got all of the information I needed to craft my next fiction novel, which will deal with an FBI and Navy sting operation and an informant. I might add that The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre, just released an on it's way to being a bestseller (see my review), deals with something similar to the Archer Daniels Midland anti trust case. In Le Carre's book it is the pharmaceutical-government complex that are the bad guys.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reportage
Review: Mr. Eichenwald did a magnificent job keeping this story understandable and interesting. I kept wondering throughout how such corrupt people could rise to such high levels in corporate America. I guess my frustration is also my naiveté.
Rating:
Summary: good stuff.
Review: this was a great book.
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