Remember when the price of eggs soared, and providers said it was inflation and higher transportation costs and a sudden drop in production and some kind of avian flu?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
But it turns out that Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. producer, more than doubled its revenue last quarter to nearly a billion dollars because of sharply higher egg prices &#8212; and profits surged 718%. And production wasn&#8217;t down. Cal-Maine, which controls about 20% of the domestic egg market, said the total number of eggs it sold rose by 1%, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html">reported</a>.
The company said the average selling price for a dozen eggs in the quarter ending February 25 was $3.30. That&#8217;s more than twice what a dozen cost a year earlier, when its average price was $1.61, Cal-Maine said. Thus, net income soared to $323.2 million from just $39.5 million a year ago, CNN reported.
In January, the cost of a dozen eggs surpassed the price of a pound of beef, marking the first time that’s happened since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began keeping <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111">data</a> in 1980. The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs ran at $4.82 in January 2023, while a pound of ground beef was $4.64, the BLS said. In January 2022, eggs were $1.93, and beef was $4.77, but egg prices have soared by 70% in the last year alone, according to the bureau.
Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, says the “real culprit” behind sky-high prices is a “collusive scheme” among top U.S. egg producers to fix prices to gouge consumers. In a January letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Farm Action <a href="https://farmaction.us/2023/01/19/farm-action-calls-for-ftc-to-investigate-record-high-egg-prices/?utm_source=substack&amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_medium=email">said</a> the alleged collusion has helped egg producers to “extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40%.”
The letter said avian flu is not to blame. “Examining publicly-available financial data from the egg industry, the letter determines that the supply disruption caused by the avian flu outbreak had an ‘apparently mild impact on the industry,&#8217;” the group said in a press release.
The group also said egg producers are making money hand over fist. “For the 26-week period ending on November 26, 2022, Cal-Maine reported a ten-fold year-over-year increase in gross profits — from $50.392 million to $535.339 million — and a five-fold increase in its gross margins,” the letter said.
Some lawmakers have criticized egg producers’ pricing, accusing them of price gouging.
“American families working to put food on the table deserve to know whether the increased prices they are paying for eggs represent a legitimate response to reduced supply or out-of-control corporate greed,” said a letter sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) to Cal-Maine and other large egg producers last month.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Egg Prices Soar in California

Eggs-Tortion? Profits For Largest U.S. Egg Producer Soar 718%

Business

Economy

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Food

Price Gouging

Former Obama chief economist Jason Furman said Sunday that Democrat-backed bills aimed at combating &#8220;price gouging&#8221; would not actually solve inflation and might make future product shortages worse.
Speaking with host Margaret Brennan on CBS&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/economist-jason-furman-not-super-worried-about-a-recession-within-the-next-year/">Face the Nation</a>&#8221; Sunday, Furman, who served as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under Barack Obama, said the proposals are &#8220;gimmicky&#8221; and a failed experiment from the 1970s that should not be brought back.
&#8220;As you know, Democrats are pushing bills in Congress&#8230; trying to cap what they&#8217;re calling price gouging,&#8221; Brennan told Furman. &#8220;You hear President Biden using that phrase, also talking about raising taxes on the wealthy. As an economist, do any of those things have a measurable impact for consumers in fighting inflation?&#8221;
Furman responded by claiming that most of the responsibility for combating inflation fell on the Federal Reserve. He said there was little the President could do unilaterally but credited Biden for taking action attempting to open ports and recruit and train more truckers, as well as releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think, though, that these anti-price gouging bills would do much to bring inflation down,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They just increase the type of shortages that consumers probably hate even more than the high prices.&#8221;
&#8220;You were quoted as saying corporate greed is a bad theory of inflation. Is that another way of saying that what Democrats are talking about is just a gimmick?&#8221; Brennan followed up.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s pretty gimmicky, these price gouging bills, because, you know, he&#8217;s got a lot of extra demand. What happens when demand goes up? Prices go up. There&#8217;s an old saying the cure for high prices is high prices. That&#8217;s a little bit of a painful thing to deal with, but it&#8217;s what elicits the additional supply. It brings more producers into the market, and it&#8217;s what brings prices down and we need to let that process work. You try to interfere with it, you&#8217;re going to make things worse. We tried that in the seventies, it was a big failure. We shouldn&#8217;t be repeating it again.&#8221;
Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a bill last week that would attempt to fight inflation by giving the president the power to declare an &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-pushes-democratic-bill-that-would-give-biden-power-to-control-gas-prices">energy emergency</a>.&#8221; The bill, titled the &#8220;Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act,&#8221; would allow the president to declare such an emergency for up to 30 days, as The Daily Wire reported. During such an emergency, the bill states, &#8220;It shall be unlawful for any person to sell a consumer fuel, at wholesale or retail…at a price that is unconscionably excessive; and indicates the seller is exploiting the circumstances related to an energy emergency to increase prices unreasonably.&#8221;
Violations of the order would be treated as an unfair or deceptive trade practice, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. The bill would also set up a “Consumer Relief Trust Fund” to distribute funds collected by the program to low-income households. It <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3494387-house-passes-gasoline-price-gouging-bill/">passed</a> on a near party-line vote, 217-207, but is unlikely to pass in the evenly-divided Senate, The Hill reported.

Federal Reserve Jackson Hole Economic Symposium

Former Obama Chief Economist: Democratic-Backed Anti-‘Price Gouging’ Bills Won’t Fix Inflation, Would Likely Make Shortages Worse

Former Obama Chief Economist: Democratic-Backed Anti-'Price Gouging' Bills Won't Fix Inflation

Face The Nation

Inflation

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed that the baby formula shortage was in part the result of people &#8220;hoarding&#8221; the available supply and then selling it for a higher price, profiting from the desperation of the families who needed to feed their babies.
Psaki took a number of questions on the issue during Thursday&#8217;s press briefing, and she began by saying that President Joe Biden had been anticipating the <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/outright-criminal-congress-dragged-for-rushing-40-billion-to-ukraine-waiting-2-weeks-to-schedule-hearing-on-formula-shortage/">shortages</a> and working to find solutions for quite some time.
CBS reporter Ed O&#8217;Keefe pressed Psaki on that point, asking when President Biden had first been briefed on the potential for shortages, but Psaki declined to give any details. &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to get into internal briefings,&#8221; was all she would say.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CBS&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/edokeefe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EdOKeefe</a>: &quot;On the formula shortage&#8230;you said that this is been something that&#39;s been in the works for several months, mostly through the FDA. When was the first time the President was briefed on the shortage? 
Psaki: &quot;I&#39;m not going to get into internal briefings.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/RUlH0PWUoU">pic.twitter.com/RUlH0PWUoU</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1524842191398522900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2022</a></blockquote>
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O&#8217;Keefe pressed again, asking whether anyone had considered invoking the Defense Production Act and once more whether Biden had been apprised of the situation prior to this week. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t like this suddenly popped up?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CBS&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/edokeefe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EdOKeefe</a>: &quot;He would have known about this before this week? It wasn&#39;t like this suddenly popped up?&quot;
Psaki: &quot;This is something the administration has been working on for some time now.&quot; (3/3) <a href="https://t.co/tH0GbjaE8J">pic.twitter.com/tH0GbjaE8J</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1524843179194863637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich continued in the same vein, noting that a <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/amid-baby-formula-shortages-republicans-introduce-legislation-strengthening-domestic-infant-formula-supply/">whistle-blower</a> had come forward last October to warn the FDA.
&#8220;It does seem like we should&#8217;ve seen this coming, that maybe the FDA could have done more on the baby formula shortage,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The whistleblower used to work at that Sturgis plant warned the FDA top officials about safety concerns in October but they didn&#8217;t interview that whistleblower until December, the inspection wasn&#8217;t until January 31st and the recall happened February 17th. So, is that timeline acceptable to the White House? And it not, what is the White House doing to correct that?&#8221;
Psaki replied that she did not have any &#8220;specific analysis&#8221; of the process, repeating that the Biden administration had been working on the issue for months.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
JACQUI TIME: &quot;It does seem like we should&#39;ve seen this coming, that maybe the FDA could have done more on the baby formula shortage. The whistleblower used to work at that&#8230;plant warned the FDA&#8230;in October&#8230;The recall happened February 17th. So, is that timeline acceptable[?]&quot; <a href="https://t.co/uCJ0RKitJb">pic.twitter.com/uCJ0RKitJb</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1524844469048201220?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Psaki later noted another issue that was complicating efforts to get <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/ohio-democrat-is-mad-at-republicans-for-fighting-abortion-when-theres-a-formula-shortage/">formula</a> back on shelves, arguing that some people were &#8220;hoarding&#8221; what little supply there was and then jacking up the price, forcing desperate parents to pay more for the formula they needed.
&#8220;If you are a parent who&#8217;s looking for formula right now, struggling to find what you need, do you have even a rough guess of how long these shortages are going to last? What should parents be bracing for here?&#8221; one reporter asked.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
PSAKI: &quot;What we are seeing which is an enormous problem is hoarding&#8230;and people hoarding because they are trying to profit off of fearful parents.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/EE50jO0NTg">pic.twitter.com/EE50jO0NTg</a>
&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1524840408353841152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Psaki argued that supply was already beginning to increase, adding, &#8220;What we are seeing which is an enormous problem is hoarding — people hoarding because they are fearful, that is one element of it — and people hoarding because they are trying to profit off of fearful parents.&#8221;

Press Secretary Psaki Briefs White House Media

Psaki Claims White House Is On Top Of Baby Formula Shortage, But Hoarding Is An ‘Enormous Problem’

Psaki Blames 'Hoarding' For Baby Formula Shortage, Says Biden Is On Top Of It

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I&#8217;m not sure whether COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China, in the U.S. qualifies as a true disaster. Putting the disease in perspective, we might look at current influenza illnesses. According to Centers for Disease Control estimates, between Oct. 1, 2019, and March 14, 2020, there have been 390,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations as a result of the flu, 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 flu illnesses and 23,000 to 59,000 flu deaths. That&#8217;s compared with, as of March 27, a total of 85,356 cases of COVID-19 resulting in the deaths of 1,246 people.
But let&#8217;s agree that COVID-19 is a disaster and ask what the appropriate steps that are to deal with it. One of the first observations about any disaster is that the quantity demanded of many goods greatly exceeds the supply. There is a shortage. The natural market response when there is a shortage is for prices to rise. Rising prices produce several beneficial effects. They reduce the incentive for people to hoard while suppliers, motivated by the prospect of higher profits, are incentivized to produce more of the good in short supply.
Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have anti-price gouging laws that prohibit &#8220;excessive and unjustified&#8221; increases in prices of essential consumer goods and services during a federal, state or local declared emergency. Price gouging is legally defined as charging 10 to 25% more for something than you charged for it during the month before an emergency. Sellers convicted of price gouging face stiff fines and perhaps prison terms.
But what about hoarding? Often, hoarding creates the shortage. In uncertain times, people may purchase three dozen eggs instead of one dozen. They may want to maintain stockpiles of canned goods and buy up large quantities of cleaners, paper towels and toilet paper. This kind of behavior has left some with overflowing freezers, shelves of sanitizers and garages full of toilet paper while their neighbors are left either wanting for the same items or paying what some call &#8220;excessive and unjustified&#8221; prices.
While it&#8217;s difficult to get beyond emotions, the fact is that consumers are not forced to buy products for the higher (gouged) price. If they pay, it is likely because they see themselves as being better off acquiring the good than the alternative &#8211; keeping their money in their pocket. Higher prices charged have a couple of unappreciated benefits. First, they get people to economize on the use of the good whose price has risen. That is higher prices reduce demand and encourage conservation. That helps with the disaster.
With higher prices, profit-seeking suppliers know that they can make more money by bringing additional quantities of the goods to the market. This increases the supply of goods, which helps to drive prices back down. Anti-price gouging laws disrupt these two very important functions of the marketplace and enhance and prolong a disaster. In other words, in a disaster, we want people to economize their use of goods and services and we want suppliers of these goods and services to produce more. Rising prices encourage these actions. Anti-price gouging laws stymy those incentives and create the pretense that a disaster does not exist.
Some people might reluctantly agree that allowing prices to rise during a disaster helps allocate resources. But they&#8217;ll complain that&#8217;s not the intention of greedy sellers who are out to profit. I say, so what? It&#8217;s not sellers&#8217; intentions that count but what their actions accomplish that&#8217;s important — namely, getting people to conserve more and suppliers to produce more.
Many of the problems associated with a disaster would be eliminated if people&#8217;s buying behavior were the same as it was before the disaster. To get people to behave nicely and consider their neighbors is the ultimate challenge. I think rising prices are the best and most dependable way to get people to be considerate of their fellow man.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at <a href="http://www.creators.com">www.creators.com</a>.

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Eggs-Tortion? Profits For Largest U.S. Egg Producer Soar 718%

Former Obama Chief Economist: Democratic-Backed Anti-‘Price Gouging’ Bills Won’t Fix Inflation, Would Likely Make Shortages Worse

Psaki Claims White House Is On Top Of Baby Formula Shortage, But Hoarding Is An ‘Enormous Problem’

WILLIAMS: Managing A Disaster