Shell Shocked: The True Cost Behind Soaring Egg Prices
While the ongoing avian influenza outbreak has undeniably played a role in supply shortages, there’s a deeper story here that involves corporate profits, market manipulation, and a lack of meaningful intervention from policymakers.
A carton of eggs, once the poster child of affordable groceries, has become a luxury item in American households. On March 4, 2025, the average price of a dozen eggs hit $8.15—a jaw-dropping figure compared to just a couple of years ago. While the ongoing avian influenza outbreak has undeniably played a role in supply shortages, there’s a deeper story here that involves corporate profits, market manipulation, and a lack of meaningful intervention from policymakers.
As families struggle with grocery bills, it’s time to ask a serious question: Are high egg prices purely the result of supply chain disruptions, or are they being exploited by an industry that sees an opportunity to cash in? As with most economic issues, the answer is more complicated than it seems.
The Bird Flu Crisis: A Real but Convenient Scapegoat
The avian flu outbreak has devastated the poultry industry. Over the past two years, the virus has wiped out millions of egg-laying hens across the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that nearly 60 million birds have been culled to prevent the disease from spreading further. This loss in production naturally leads to higher prices—fewer hens mean fewer eggs, and in a market driven by supply and demand, scarcity drives costs upward.
But while bird flu is a legitimate concern, it is far from the only influence. The poultry industry has historically dealt with similar outbreaks without triggering such dramatic price hikes. So what makes this time different?
Corporate Profits and the Role of Big Egg
Large egg producers have reported record-breaking profits throughout this crisis. In 2024, Cal-Maine Foods, the nation’s largest egg producer, saw its revenue skyrocket to over $3.1 billion, nearly doubling from previous years. While companies claim these profits are a natural result of rising production costs, consumer advocacy groups and some economists argue that egg suppliers are taking advantage of the situation to inflate prices well beyond what is necessary to cover expenses.
The U.S. Department of Justice has investigated potential price-fixing within the egg industry. If collusion among major egg producers is found, this mirrors tactics seen in other industries, where corporations use real-world crises as cover for price manipulation.
Consider the oil industry: When hurricanes disrupt refineries, or geopolitical tensions drive up crude oil prices, gas prices surge at the pump. But when conditions stabilize, prices often take far longer to come back down—if they ever fully do. This same pattern appears to be playing out in the egg industry.
Producers cite higher feed, labor, and transportation costs as reasons for sustained high prices, but commodity markets tell a different story. The cost of corn and soybeans—major feed components—has declined from pandemic-era peaks. If input costs are dropping, why aren’t egg prices following suit?
How Consumers Are Coping
The sticker shock of egg prices has forced many Americans to rethink their grocery budgets. Some families have switched to egg substitutes or entirely cut back on egg consumption. Others have turned to unconventional sources, such as buying eggs directly from small farms or even Facebook Marketplace, where backyard chicken owners sell excess eggs at lower prices than grocery stores.
This shift highlights a broader issue in the food supply chain: overreliance on industrial agriculture. When a few large corporations control most of the supply, disruptions—whether caused by disease, natural disasters, or corporate greed—hit consumers the hardest.
Some households have taken the most drastic step: raising their chickens. While backyard farming can be a rewarding and cost-effective solution for some, it’s not a viable option for everyone. Many cities have zoning laws prohibiting keeping hens; not everyone has the time or resources to maintain a small flock.
As consumers scramble for solutions, the responsibility should not fall solely on their shoulders. It’s up to regulators and lawmakers to ensure that markets function fairly without undue corporate influence inflating prices.
Where Are Lawmakers?
Despite public outcry, government officials’ response has been underwhelming. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have initiated investigations. Still, these processes take time, and potential penalties won’t necessarily translate into immediate relief for consumers.
Meanwhile, the USDA has focused on monitoring bird flu outbreaks and offering subsidies to affected farms, but these measures have not addressed the fundamental pricing issue.
Some lawmakers have proposed price-gouging legislation that would penalize companies for excessive markups during crises. However, industry lobbyists argue that such regulations could have unintended consequences, discouraging production or investment in biosecurity measures.
The European Union has a different approach to stabilizing food prices, with government interventions and stricter regulations preventing extreme price swings. While not perfect, these policies help protect consumers from corporate exploitation during supply chain disruptions. The U.S. could learn from these strategies, implementing safeguards that ensure essential goods like eggs remain affordable.
The Future of Egg Prices
Experts predict that egg prices will remain volatile throughout 2025. The USDA has warned that prices could increase another 41% this year if bird flu outbreaks continue and production remains constrained. However, if corporate profits continue to rise alongside these price hikes, expect public frustration to grow.
The long-term solution lies in greater transparency in pricing, stronger regulations against price manipulation, and a more diversified food supply chain. Encouraging local and independent egg producers could provide a buffer against future supply shocks, reducing dependence on a handful of major suppliers.
Consumers can also push for change by supporting policies that promote fair competition and accountability in the food industry. Pressure on lawmakers and public awareness have historically led to action in similar cases of corporate overreach.
The rising price of eggs is a symptom of a larger problem that extends beyond bird flu outbreaks and into the heart of corporate influence over food markets. While supply disruptions play a role, unchecked profit-seeking by major egg producers has exacerbated the situation.
Consumers deserve a market that operates fairly, without artificial inflation driven by corporate interests. As investigations continue, it’s crucial to hold both industry leaders and policymakers accountable for ensuring that essential food items remain accessible to all.
Until then, Americans will have to keep finding creative ways to afford their morning omelet—cutting back, raising their chickens, or simply waiting for a break in the market. But one thing is clear: If egg prices continue to rise while corporate profits soar, the public won’t stay silent for long.
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Comments
I agree
It’s more than time for trumps egg czar to get to the bottom
Of this
Calling BS
Hen owners with hens that aren’t sick have huge profits. This is actually good. It lures in more entrants more quickly.
In the meantime price prevents shortages, You can always buy all the eggs you want
See the classic Mike Munger (very entertaining too) podcast on price gouging and economic illiteracy. You won’t be disappointed.
https://youtu.be/8_z-GnhHyGg
What is omitted from this non-economic column are the losses of all the farmers who have been devastated by the avian flu. Of course the remaining producers are going to make large profits, but each of those producers remains at risk of having their chickens wiped out by the flu. During the period of reduced egg production increases, egg prices will remain higher than normal. It cannot be otherwise. When egg production increases, prices will go down as they already have begun to do, and that is how the market works.
It’s not gouging if you have other options.
People should just stop focusing on eggs and point out that the increases were across the board on all products. Cereal, OJ, milk, meat, bread: everything went up 50% of more from 2020-2024. Focusing on just eggs is a distraction from a much bigger issue.
Chuck Roast is selling at my local grocer for an eye-watering $9.99/lb. Ribeye is $23.99/lb. In Trump’s 1st term, those cuts of beef were $3.99/lb and $13.99/lb (or less), respectively. The price of beef is obscene and yet, it’s never talked about in the media, not even by Fox News.
Pork and chicken have seen similar increases over the Biden administration. Some of it is general inflation (money supply), animal husbandry does have high energy consumption inputs, so increases in refined oil products impacts costs. Ukraine and Russia are the sources of inputs to fertilizers, and the war there has disrupted those products. Cattle producers have cut back on their herds, restricting supplies. A poor hay harvest last year drove up the cost of feeding cattle.
Then there are the multiple fires of chicken farms, a major chick hatchery, and a major fertilizer plant.
As pork, beef, and chicken went up, people turned to eggs as a protein substitute, increasing demand. Supply goes down and demand goes up makes the price go up.
It takes 16-24 weeks to raise a chick into a laying hen, depending on the breed.
I cannot get broiler chicks today. I raise two flocks of broilers/year for my own consumption – I’m not on a contract like the big farmers. I won’t be able to get more laying chicks until late this year. All the major hatcheries are supplying the big farmers that had to cull chickens last fall in the Biden Chicken massacre.
Beef herds were severely culled a couple years ago due to drought and price of feed. Created a temp oversupply which lowered prices. Now the smaller herds produce less beef and the relative scarcity raises the price. I believe that most predictions are for herds to gradually recover to former size and production levels within another 3-5 years.
This is one area where corn lobby/ethanol really hurts. With the direct corn subsidies and the market distortion of diverting corn to ethanol many farmers bring marginal land under corn cultivation. Land that is better suited for grazing or hay production. That removes land available for cattle. Then they sell the corn to make ethanol which lowers amount of corn or alternatively hay available to cattle ranch. Not to mention all the bad effects of mono crop on environment.
We need more small to medium farms/ranches. Even more we need folks willing to become farmers and ranchers. Average age of farmers/ranchers is high and not many younger people are willing to do it Our farm policy needs to reflect this reality and we need to figure out how to create incentives to become a farmer/rancher or at least remove some of the regulatory burden and reform the 20th century AG polices to make small to medium size farms/ranches more attractive to a new generation.
When prices rise then new competitors enter the industry. The increased competition for market share and increased product availability will ultimately lower prices until they stabilize. That’s basic economics everyone should have learned in HS. What prevents this? Barriers to entry into the market. Today all too often in the form of far too complex/burdensome regulations that were proposed by the Big guys in the industry. They have the economies of scale to achieve compliance with the regs their lobbying groups wrote as a form of protection.
TL/DR – the better path is less regulation, more competition, creation/restoration of more farming operations, more commitment from consumers to support small, local farms and an end to the farm subsidies for particular crops, discourage mono crop farming and a return to diversified farms in local communities.
This is painfully naive, the egg industry is controlled by a relatively small number of large corporations. It is difficult for the market to correct on its own, especially in context of certain parts of the industry being affected by avian flu. Even if the conditions were ok for for competitive forces to correct prices, these take time.
Complex regulation on eggs, are you kidding. the state regulations barely go to a page of A4, and federal agency regulations relate to food safety which is hardly burdensome. Its not clear to me that there are many regulatory hurdles at all in relation to this issue. In fact the opposite is true, corporations given free reign to charge whatever they want
Government killed off the laying hens. I consider that to be ‘regulation’. Every producer should charge what the market will accept. That’s capitalism and when price gets too much to pay folks will decline to purchase. Others will enter the market. Both will.cause.prices to drop as supply available for purchase expands. Basic economics.
I agree that we have monopoly level AG companies. Personally I would push for most any company in any industry that has gotten 20% market share to be viewed as a monopoly and prevented from further consolidation.
More competition is almost always the answer. Part of it is on consumers. We must be willing to take time to go to a farmer’s market or get a regular purchase contract from local farmers. So long as consumers favor a one stop shop in a grocery store v adding time, effort for a trip to local farmers market we won’t get enough competition.
Govt has a role in actively policing monopoly behavior and in simplifying regs to ensure they are functional necessities and ain’t a burden to entry into the market created by existing big guys to stave off competition.
What has always bothered me is that prices rise but they never seen to come down. It’s even worse as you go from commodities to finished products. Why? It’s not the grocery stores. Their margins are so small I wonder how they stay in business. Where is all the money going?
Into cost.
Prices go up. In an economy where productivity is stable or rises, prices always rise to some extent.
Tell me then how a plain donut costs 1.70 at Dunkin Donuts. Ignore the price increase in eggs for the moment. Why is a 2L bottle of coke north of 2. On a rare sale you might pay 1.65. It use to be .99 on sale. Why the greater than 50% increase, It is mind boggling,
Some of the rise in price is an illusion. Sure the amount of currency required to make a purchase may go up but the value of the currency dropped due to increased money supply. More money in circulation/created by Fed Reserve means the value of the existing supply falls in proportion to the increase. If there were only a limited amount of currency/money say just 100 single dollar bills in existence in a small economy of you, me and a couple neighbors we’d have a good idea of the value of each bill. Then the supply increases …say it doubles. Now we got 2x as much money in circulation so obviously we are twice as rich…nope. We are exactly where we were before but now the value of each dollar is reduced. So if you paid me a single.dollar to mow your lawn before then now I want 2x as much b/c the value (purchasing power) of each dollar bill has been reduced.
The ‘price’ went up and more currency/dollars are needed to make the purchase but really it was the drop in value/purchasing power of the unit of currency. Doesn’t make it less painful to shell out the cash though, especially when the financial system is rigged to reward some and punish others when the money supply increases. One example is a mortgage. You get one with a monthly payment of $1,000. Then over time as more money is printed the actual value of the money you pay back on the mortgage is less and less each year. Lenders offset this by charging higher rates. Way, way, way too simplistic but it communicates the basic idea.
Just like the ‘rona, ‘bird flu’ is NOT the cause. The cause is the government ordering 150 million chickens killed because a tiny handful got bird flu.
As long as the government doesn’t kill a hundred million more birds then prices will come down.
I wouldn’t say “a tiny handful.” H5N1 is pretty contagious among chickens. I’m not sure it’s as deadly as the culling, however. But it can spread from flock to flock pretty quickly, it seems.
It is very contagious, but my personal experience says the mortality rate of HPAIV is 20-25%,
For backyard and free-range egg producers, avoiding the normal carriers of the virus (waterfowl) is difficult.
For commercial producers, with wholly indoor facilities, simple biosafety precautions should reduce the chance of infection to zero. The fact that the confined birds are still getting infected indicates that these large producers can’t or won’t enforce basic safety protocols to keep the virus from walking in on employees shoes.
Hiring non-English speaking illegals may have something to do with this.
Producing your own eggs is only practical is free range,
I had chickens, they had to be penned, coyotes, coons, owls, other predatory birds cost of feed were all problems for me.
My buildings are in a wooded area, The next, smaller farm I plan to leave to a impaired now adult will be mostly open land.
I have started mixing eggs with garbanzo beans 50-50. and am still using reasonable priced eggs over 6 months old.
You are eating 6 month old eggs?
Mixing eggs with. Beans, Mexicans have been doing it forever
Great taco
My Grandmother told me they used to coat the shells of eggs in vinegar to preserve them and keep them in a cellar. Not sure about 6 months though, seems like a very long time.
Meat to write Mineral oil for longer term and vinegar/salt for short term. Never tried it but I imagine there are some among LI readers who can give us better info.
Waterglassing.
Dunno about vinegar, it turns eggshells rubbery. Used to be the secret to a magic trick about putting an egg in a bottle with a neck smaller than the egg.
I’ve noticed that local, small farm prices have been lower than name brand eggs. Usually it’s the reverse.
The yolk’s on us
I wanted to raise chickens, always have but I have 3 dogs, large, I have a large pen and a shed I could convert
But I have coyotes up the ying yang and raccoons, snakes
My neighbor said the raccoons dug under his pen into the chicken house and slaughtered them all one night. Said they didn’t even seem to eat them, like it was fun or something…
It would be a slaughter
Chickens are not for for survival. They haven’t gone extinct because of farming to keep them alive.
No bird kill in Hawaii. One producer. They were expensive at $6.29 before. Now they are still $6.29 and I am of a mind to continue buying from this producer.
I am still not that eggs-cited about our future.
Stop right there. What is this piece of socialist propaganda doing on a conservative site? Policymakers have no role in a free market. Milton Friedman proposed a constitutional amendment to protect the freedom of contract, because it’s just as fundamental as the ones already in the bill of rights. Willing buyer, willing seller, you have no right to regulate it in any way.
If they can do this successfully, good for them. Why on earth shouldn’t they? Why should they voluntarily take a lower profit than they can? Would YOU ever do that? Would you ever leave money on the table? So why do you expect it of them? Do they have fewer rights than you do?!
That is a contradiction in terms. The moment “regulators and lawmakers” stick their cotton-pickin’ fingers into a market it is no longer free or fair. And no “corporate influence” can possibly be “undue”; it’s their eggs, not yours, so they have the absolute right to charge whatever price they like for it. The only reason they don’t and shouldn’t charge $100 a dozen is that no one would pay it. If they can find someone willing to pay it then that is what they should charge.
Yes, we already know that the EU is a socialist hell-hole. People there don’t have rights, only privileges. You can’t say what you wish, you can’t defend yourself from criminals, nor even have the means to do so, you can’t raise your children as you wish, you can’t work the hours that you and your employer are both happy for you to work, so it’s no wonder you can’t charge what you wish for your property. That’s why most of us choose not to live there.
That’s gonna leave a mark.
Well stated, thank you.
It’s government regulation that forces farmers to kill perfectly healthy chickens, thus driving up the price for the remainder.
U r correct, poindexter
Even for infected hens, it is my understanding that the eggs are still perfectly fine. That is the virus does not pass through the egg. Thus we have a “cure” worse than the disease. In the long-term, the farmers need to keep wild fowl (e.g. natural carriers of the virus such as ducks) from commingling with the hens and infecting them.
I am eggstatic
You keep making yolks despite nobody egging you on.
“Large egg producers have reported record-breaking profits throughout this crisis. In 2024, Cal-Maine Foods, the nation’s largest egg producer, saw its revenue skyrocket to over $3.1 billion, nearly doubling from previous years. ”
Another thing that is omitted from this non-economic column is the difference between revenue and profit. Revenue is the total income a business earns from sales, while profit is what remains after deducting all expenses from revenue. This column seems to use the terms interchangeably, but they are not.
So don’t buy them if they are too expensive. Democrats and the legacy media are focusing on egg hysteria to draw attention away from all the other rotten things Biden did in his 4 year reign of destruction. All prices went up.
It would be interesting to see how egg prices compare globally!
For instance:
https://www.woolworths.co.nz/ – NZD$0.87 per egg to NZD$1.04 per egg
https://www.woolworths.com.au/ – AUD$$5.40 per dozen to AUD$6.10 per dozen – most options simply list out of stock
https://www.tesco.com/ (UK) – £0.28 per egg to £0.46 per egg.
Using X-Rates to convert that translates to USD$3.398-USD$3.838 per dozen in Australia, USD$4.353-USD$7.152 in Britain, and USD$5.955-USD$7.119 in New Zealand. Why are American eggs so much more expensive?!?
Does Trump need to end tariffs on foreign egg imports? 😛
USA eggs don’t look more expensive if those are current prices.
Per this article “the average price of a dozen eggs hit $8.15”. Best case scenario American laid eggs are more than 10% above the UK or NZ price. Worst case scenario they’re about 240% the price of AU eggs.
The cure for high prices is high prices.
On the supply side, high prices incentivize producers to expand production. On the demand side, high prices incentive consumers to scale back purchases and seek out substitutes. Ultimately an equilibrium price is established where supply equals demand.
If egg prices are above the market clearing price, then an egg surplus results. Eggs are perishable with a fairly short shelf life. What do the producers, distributors, retailers, etc. do with all those excess eggs?
Sorry, but the market is functioning properly.
======
I know a cattleman who is worried about the beef industry. The national cattle herd is at the lowest point since 1951.
https://www.fb.org/market-intel/u-s-cattle-inventory-smallest-in-73-years#:~:text=The%20Report&text=All%20cattle%20and%20calves%20in,in%201951%20(Figure%201).
The average cattleman is 60+ years old. Less than 10% of cattlemen are under the age of 35. The industry has not attracted young people able to replace the older generation of producers.
In addition, pasture land for cattle grazing and hay production is being lost to other uses.
Government is subsidizing fake plant based “hamburgers” to incentivize their production and “nudge” consumers to adopt them as alternatives to beef.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23849473/cell-cultivated-meat-impossible-beyond-alternatives-vegan-investment-report-infrastructure
Three kinds of high prices:
– temporary increases in price from supply shocks, like killing 165 million chickens
– permanent increases because of increase in money supply, which is what we had under Biden, and is true inflation
– monopolistic price increases from market rigging
Milton Friedman said “the cure for high prices – is high prices” – is true inflation the first case
The second is a permanent change in prices. Thanks Joe Biden. All we can do is stop increasing the money supply (end deficits and shrink government spending) and make business more efficient so they can lower prices (cut useless government regulations)
The third exists in some markets, but the author presented zero evidence of that.
By the way, there are about 260 million egg laying hens for eating in the US as of February
So killing 165 million and having to foot the bill for replacing them (hens don’t grow for free on egg trees obviously) just might impact costs. Which get reflected in prices.
Dave Manney claims this is scapegoating. But Dave Manney – this seems to be his first post on LI and a very poor one at that – says it in his author bio that he specializes in story telling … and his article is a nice piece of fiction indeed until he provides some actual facts to back it up
In the meantime, expect as avian flu gets under control and hen stocks replenish and costs related to this blip get recouped prices drop some
But not all the way. Because FJB.
Which is almost impossible for anyone except the government, which is why big businesses that want to be monopolists lobby the government to increase regulation. In this case it’s the government that insists on culling all those chickens, so if there’s corporate manipulation involved it can only be by lobbying the government to require that culling.
Yes, every government regulation on a business or industry creates a barrier to entry for new competitors. This is not to say that all regulation is bad. A few years living in Central America disabused me of any purest Libertarian ideas.
However, the problem with a mature government is that politicians want to stay busy so that they can show that they are effective. This means that more and more regulations are created – and if a big donor ‘suggests’ a ‘good’ idea, well…sure.
Yep, agree that usually monopolies are created by government intervention and regulation. Could have made that clearer but my comment was already too long probably …
Look at how Epic Software took over a huge position in the EHR marketplace because they lobbied for provisions in Obamacare for example
(hens don’t grow for free on egg trees obviously)
Ummm, well – aside from eggs not growing on trees – they actually sorta do. At least if you’ve got roosters about. Though you might work them to death. [Insert joke with the punchline of “Shhh, they’re about to land” here.]
Excellent response (and shorter than mine).
I love eggs, but vote with my wallet. My consumption is 1/10th what it was and that is only because I purchase lower cost eggs occasionally from hobbyists.
The price of eggs is NOT coming down where I live in the Texas panhandle. Whereas Husband and I previously ate eggs for breakfast every other day, we cut back to once a week, and I stopped baking sweets. I think Husband misses the sweets more than his breakfast eggs.
The article was good, as far as it went, but I believe I can add some good information to it that it didn’t contain, from other things I have read recently. First, as to the chickens, this ‘flu’ is hitting the geese harder then it is the chickens, and they have (and this has been confirmed) been using the same ramped up PCR testing on the chickens that they were using on people to get false positives during COVID, so they can do a few tests on chickens, get a few false positives, and ‘oops! Avian Flu’!
This being said, on a big chicken farm, there will be massive chicken coops, and not all of the chickens are in one big coop. They are all in different ones, so it was a utterly insane to kill ALL of the chickens in EVERY coop, just for a few POSSIBLY sick chickens in ONE single coop. Killing the ones in one coop is understandable, and that loss could be recovered in record time, but killing hundreds of thousands over night was utterly stupid.
Now, also, I have read that the DOJ is investigating at least one company the culled most of their chickens, and not only did their stock prices go up quite a bit, but they never really tried to get the chicken population back up, as it seems that if they did, the stock might well have gone back down. They could have got a lot of their egg laying chickens back up by now, there was more then enough time it would seem, but this has not happened, so now they are under investigation for manipulation….
Seems to me if this is the case, some people need to be going to prison for a very long time.
So what? If they don’t want to rebuild their flock to its previous size, how is that anyone’s business but theirs? If they can make more money by producing less, then why shouldn’t they? Who among us would turn down such an opportunity if it ever came along?
The only reason any business exists is to make money, so it makes no sense for it to deliberately reduce its income. And no one has any right to force it to do so.
The only reason any business exists is to make money
Which the author of this piece doesn’t seem to get:
unchecked profit-seeking
Yeah, about that….
I just think it’s Americans screwing over Americans, again, as usual. Now that DOGE is finding all finding all this waste and fraud I’ll bet some has been going to the egg farmers. Too bad we can’t all get togther and boycott the egg industry.
On March 4, 2025, the average price of a dozen eggs hit $8.15
Really? According to whom? Because I was reading articles citing national averages much closer to $5 than $8. Are they using the prices in places like NYC? Are they using the prices in states that have mandated cage-free hens? Your starting point for the argument is questionable.
saw its revenue skyrocket to over $3.1 billion
You do know the difference between “revenue” and “profit”, right? If you’re not making that distinction, then you’re not making your case.
consumer advocacy groups and some economists argue that egg suppliers are taking advantage of the situation to inflate prices well beyond what is necessary
Of course they are. A lot of those “consumer advocacy groups” and “economists” are communists who think you can centrally set the price of goods to always be “low.”
But when conditions stabilize, prices often take far longer to come back down—if they ever fully do.
This doesn’t require collusion or price fixing. It’s a fact of life. Prices will always and forever go up by some amount. Unless you have deflation. So, when they go up because of some incident, they will almost never come back down (depending on how long it takes to recover) to exactly what they were before.
has declined from pandemic-era peaks
OK, but have they come down much from last year? Don’t compare prices from last week, using cost data from 5 years ago. That’s dishonest.
Others have turned to unconventional sources
Tell me you don’t have any perspective on history without saying you don’t have any historical perspective.
It’s up to regulators and lawmakers
Uh oh. Sounds pretty Central Planning to me.
Unless you can prove price-fixing, government needs to stay out.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have initiated investigations.
Not only do they take a while, they also often turn up nothing. Because they’re based on bad arguments as you’ve presented so far.
industry lobbyists argue that such regulations could have unintended consequences
Ummm, not just industry lobbyists, but actual people who have studied basic economics. Or even just people who use critical thinking and don’t subscribe to the Politics of Envy. When you start trying to control prices, you stab the Invisible Hand.
While not perfect
Not only not perfect, but Central Planning has managed to spark famines and starvation over and over again throughout the world.
protect consumers from corporate exploitation
Which you still haven’t shown. This is a typical Progressive argument for control of the market.
The U.S. could learn from these strategies
And learning from them would be to prevent them from ever being implemented here. I learned from them – by watching the Soviet Union. As just one example.
if corporate profits continue to rise
Which you haven’t presented as evidence ANYWHERE in this article. So far, you’re showing yourself to be a standard Progressive, inflating “revenue” to “profit” in order to grasp control of the market in the government’s hand.
unchecked profit-seeking
Holy cow! How to tell me you don’t believe in markets without actually saying “I’m a communist.”
Consumers deserve a market that operates fairly, without artificial inflation driven by corporate interests.
Oh, go to heck. Until you can actually show evidence* of collusion or price-fixing, you need to step off with the anti-corporate, anti-market bullhockey. When did LI start posting communist/Progressive propaganda?
(* Since this is a legal blog.)
Yep, I agree with almost all of your post. Though I do think we should be more open to using a definition of monopoly for something like 20% -25% market share, especially when consolidation narrows down to 3 or 4 big guys with 20% to 30% each and then a bunch of little guys as the remainder. The big guys will create and control the ‘trade group’ and direct lobbying efforts for all sorts of things to cement their position and deter competition. They can’t help it, it’s human nature.
Eggprices.org, which says its source is the BLS, says the highest price was March 1 at $8.17 per dozen grade A large.
But that was the peak. Most recent shown is $5.18 on March 10.
Indeed. The quality of the economic analysis in this article is not up to LI’s usual standards. This is the sort of economic nonsense I can get from the NY Times.
The following line in the article is false:
“Over the past two years, the virus has wiped out millions of egg-laying hens across the United States.”
The birds are being culled as in deliberately killed despite having survived the H5N1 virus. They are culling / killing huge numbers of survivors which is an obvious perversion of the natural course of the virus outbreak.
A little perspective on how egg layers are produced in this country. Understand that normally a commercial white egg layer only lasts about a year, possibly 2, before it is “spent” and replaced by a new bird.
First, it takes 6 months from the time a fertile egg is laid until that bird starts laying eggs herself. Half of all fertile eggs produce males, and not 100% of all eggs hatch. So to replace the 165 million slaughtered laying hens, probably 350 million or more extra eggs must be incubated by the farmers that keep breeding flocks, a big business in itself.
In normal years, the number of hens kept by the breeders roughly matches the number of replacement pullets required by the market egg producers.
But suddenly the number of needed replacement hens goes up massively overnight. In order to provide those birds, breeders must themselves hold back pullets to increase the size their breeding flocks (in that 6 month cycle) or egg producers must buy pullets from other countries, vastly increasing their costs.
What this means is, its not a matter of just ordering new replacement pullets from AmazonCluck or Chicken World because they simply aren’t immediately available in the numbers required.
The mass slaughter dislocates every part of the industry, and the ripples take many months to dissipate. And there will be further disruptions in the future besides the ‘flu, since many poultry businesses rely on illegal labor (hopefully soon to be scarce).
Very well articulated.
Great analysis of the consolidation in there’s industry at the substack big that covers monopolies:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/fowl-play-how-chicken-genetics-barons?
This is the second article I have read today. Neither actually provided enough specific information for me to have a better understanding. Even this article seamed to flip flop between revenue and profits? I would think profits naturally go up in a shortage. My hen coop came this week and I’m visiting a local farm this weekend to purchase some hens. It will take 5 to 6 months for them to start laying so this is not an immediate solution.
Funny how all the “FAUCHI FLUS” ONLY affect the food supply or humans. No other animal gets sick. And since when does Avian flu affect cows? 4 total deaths of the chickens and they kiled 650 million chickens. Chickens take 8-9 months to start egg laying so recovering will take at least that long or more. Cattle take 24 months. So if they start killing cattle we are in deep crapola.
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