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coraaThe Informant, Kurt Eichenwald (Nonfiction)
I bought this book because I'd loved the This American Life episode "The Fix Is In," which was based on the book, and I wanted to learn more. I wasn't disappointed, although having heard the episode it meant that I already knew a lot of the plot twists. But not all of them.
Because this is a book full of twists, so many that at times it's unbelievable -- until you get to the end, where Eichenwald extensively and meticulously documents the sources for every twist, turn, plot, and even line of dialogue. The first eighty percent of the book is written in a compelling, thriller-esque style that makes the banal workings of white-collar crime seem extremely exciting even without, you know, explosions and car chases -- and the last twenty percent backs up the facts. It's a great technique, and one that I think works well.
The "setting" is Archer Daniels Midland Company (aka ADM), which prior to hearing "The Fix Is In" I'd known only because of their 'sponsored by' spots on PBS, where they're called "Supermarket to the World." The background on ADM is that they're a conglomarate that handles agricultural products and by-products: they make everything from canola oil to corn syrup to citric acid, which are then purchased by other companies and turned into consumer products, livestock feed, fuel additives, etc. You'll probably never buy anything from ADM yourself (unless you're a manufacturer), but chances are good you're consuming ADM product, possibly daily.
The story begins -- or so it first appears -- when an ADM executive, Mark Whitacre, reports to his superiors that his division, which handles manufacture of lysine (an amino acid manufactured for use in animal feed additives), was being sabotaged, and that he had received extortion calls from one of their Japanese competitors. His supervisors brought in the FBI to investigate.
But the FBI created problems of their own, especially for Whitacre, because Whitacre was terrified that they would find out what was really going on at ADM. In an attempt to protect himself (in more ways than one), Whitacre tipped the FBI agents off to a much bigger issue at ADM: international price-fixing in a number of products, particularly his own specialty, lysine. According to Whitacre, ADM was attempting to get in on a price fixing scheme engineered by its Japanese, Korean and European competitors, whereby they avoided competition that might drive down prices, instead setting the prices of lysine and dividing up territories to ensure that they each got their 'cut.'
Even better, Whitacre was willing to wear a wire to prove this, so the FBI could get it on tape -- an unprecedented move.
But why would Whitacre, a high-level ADM exec, do this, risking his own job and livelihood, when the FBI would be unlikely to find enough to make charges stick without his help? The rest of the book, and the twists and turns that get him there, come out of the answer to that question. And I'm not going to spoil them, because they're worth the wait, but I will say this: the book is at least as much about psychological issues and the damage they can do as it is about white-collar crime. The 'why' is as important as the 'what' and 'where,' and the portrayal of a person's breakdown is presented in a very nuanced way -- with sympathy both to the guy having the breakdown, and to all the people he hurt (sometimes very badly) on the way down.
If it's not clear, I really liked this book. It was informative while still being exciting, in a politics-and-psychology kind of way, and the historian in me really appreciated the extensive and meticulous footnotes backing up every step of the way (although, of course, I don't have the expertise to follow them up). If I had a complaint, it would be that at times it read a bit too much like a bestseller-list thriller, and I would have liked more of the details, even if they were dry. But that's a minor complaint.
I bought this book because I'd loved the This American Life episode "The Fix Is In," which was based on the book, and I wanted to learn more. I wasn't disappointed, although having heard the episode it meant that I already knew a lot of the plot twists. But not all of them.
Because this is a book full of twists, so many that at times it's unbelievable -- until you get to the end, where Eichenwald extensively and meticulously documents the sources for every twist, turn, plot, and even line of dialogue. The first eighty percent of the book is written in a compelling, thriller-esque style that makes the banal workings of white-collar crime seem extremely exciting even without, you know, explosions and car chases -- and the last twenty percent backs up the facts. It's a great technique, and one that I think works well.
The "setting" is Archer Daniels Midland Company (aka ADM), which prior to hearing "The Fix Is In" I'd known only because of their 'sponsored by' spots on PBS, where they're called "Supermarket to the World." The background on ADM is that they're a conglomarate that handles agricultural products and by-products: they make everything from canola oil to corn syrup to citric acid, which are then purchased by other companies and turned into consumer products, livestock feed, fuel additives, etc. You'll probably never buy anything from ADM yourself (unless you're a manufacturer), but chances are good you're consuming ADM product, possibly daily.
The story begins -- or so it first appears -- when an ADM executive, Mark Whitacre, reports to his superiors that his division, which handles manufacture of lysine (an amino acid manufactured for use in animal feed additives), was being sabotaged, and that he had received extortion calls from one of their Japanese competitors. His supervisors brought in the FBI to investigate.
But the FBI created problems of their own, especially for Whitacre, because Whitacre was terrified that they would find out what was really going on at ADM. In an attempt to protect himself (in more ways than one), Whitacre tipped the FBI agents off to a much bigger issue at ADM: international price-fixing in a number of products, particularly his own specialty, lysine. According to Whitacre, ADM was attempting to get in on a price fixing scheme engineered by its Japanese, Korean and European competitors, whereby they avoided competition that might drive down prices, instead setting the prices of lysine and dividing up territories to ensure that they each got their 'cut.'
Even better, Whitacre was willing to wear a wire to prove this, so the FBI could get it on tape -- an unprecedented move.
But why would Whitacre, a high-level ADM exec, do this, risking his own job and livelihood, when the FBI would be unlikely to find enough to make charges stick without his help? The rest of the book, and the twists and turns that get him there, come out of the answer to that question. And I'm not going to spoil them, because they're worth the wait, but I will say this: the book is at least as much about psychological issues and the damage they can do as it is about white-collar crime. The 'why' is as important as the 'what' and 'where,' and the portrayal of a person's breakdown is presented in a very nuanced way -- with sympathy both to the guy having the breakdown, and to all the people he hurt (sometimes very badly) on the way down.
If it's not clear, I really liked this book. It was informative while still being exciting, in a politics-and-psychology kind of way, and the historian in me really appreciated the extensive and meticulous footnotes backing up every step of the way (although, of course, I don't have the expertise to follow them up). If I had a complaint, it would be that at times it read a bit too much like a bestseller-list thriller, and I would have liked more of the details, even if they were dry. But that's a minor complaint.