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Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

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Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#11

Post by qclibre22 »

AlanSE wrote: post #7
josefresco wrote: post #5

Answer: Bird flu and inflation (less so). Although I suspect in short time we'll find out that the price hikes due to "bird flu" and "inflation" become... permanent.

Inflation is always permanent.

U.S. has had periods of deflation: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-i... . As recently as 2009.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#12

Post by mint2 »

josefresco wrote: post #5

Answer: Bird flu and inflation (less so). Although I suspect in short time we'll find out that the price hikes due to "bird flu" and "inflation" become... permanent.

Actually there’s more. On Jan 1st several more states laws about animal welfare went into effect whereas before essentially only California had those requirements. The supply of eggs meeting those requirements had not been ramped up to meet the step in demand. I expect that disruption will be temporary.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#13

Post by gtk40 »

I'm curious how Costco is weathering the storm better than others. Typically Aldi is the cheapest place for me to buy eggs, but they're almost $5 a dozen for basic eggs. I've seen even more at other grocery stores (Publix was several dollars more a dozen). The cage free eggs were $7/2 dozen ($3.50/dozen) earlier this week at Costco.

I'm in the Southeastern US in a suburb of a major city.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#14

Post by version_five »

nine_zeros wrote: post #2

Genuine question. Does this mean that the average person can start a chicken farm today and earn massive profits? What is stopping an enterprising person from grabbing those profits?

This would only really be implied if the price increase was just because the current egg producers have increased their price to take more profit. If the price increase come because producer's costs have risen, there's no reason to believe a new entrant would be more profitable.

Of course you know the joke about two economists walking through a busy train station. One points out a $20 bill on the ground, the other says it's obviously fake, because if it wasn't someone would have picked it up already

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#15

Post by mint2 »

User23 wrote: post #3
nine_zeros wrote: post #2

Genuine question. Does this mean that the average person can start a chicken farm today and earn massive profits? What is stopping an enterprising person from grabbing those profits?

The same thing that created the shortage in the first place: USDA regulations. If you want laying hens for personal use, no problem. As soon as you go commercial you have to follow all the rules. Edit: The takeaway is answering the post I'm replying to as to why anyone can't just start selling eggs. Edit edit: Child's axe-grinding notwithstanding, I really am just pointing out that USDA regulations are why the averag…

USDA regulations caused bird flu?

Also, Unregulated eggs are not a solution.

What is the takeaway from your comment, it’s unclear.

Edit: OP replied to this comment as an edit to their original, that makes it very awkward to actually respond to their reply. The reply also didn’t address the points because it amounted to saying “the take away is that I replied to someone”.

That comment appears to be an “all regulations are by definition bad!” viewpoint. Please explain What usda regulation caused the shortage? Was it new? If not, why did it not cause the shortage previously. Those clarifying details should be easy to provide presuming it wasn’t a knee jerk comment.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#17

Post by xadhominemx »

josefresco wrote: post #5

Answer: Bird flu and inflation (less so). Although I suspect in short time we'll find out that the price hikes due to "bird flu" and "inflation" become... permanent.

Why would you suspect that? It’s a commodity experiencing a supply disruption. Prices for lumber, shipping, oil etc have all already come down significantly from the peak.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#18

Post by Spartan-S63 »

gtk40 wrote: post #13

I'm curious how Costco is weathering the storm better than others. Typically Aldi is the cheapest place for me to buy eggs, but they're almost $5 a dozen for basic eggs. I've seen even more at other grocery stores (Publix was several dollars more a dozen). The cage free eggs were $7/2 dozen ($3.50/dozen) earlier this week at Costco. I'm in the Southeastern US in a suburb of a major city.

In Colorado (where the bird flu is hitting us hard) Costco rarely has the two dozen cartons in stock.

I think Costco locally sources their egg suppliers in some capacity which would explain these regional differences.

Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US

#20

Post by mandmandam »

qclibre22 wrote: post #11
AlanSE wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is always permanent.

U.S. has had periods of deflation: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-i... . As recently as 2009.

Down 0.4 - after a 3.8% rise the year previous.

Not exactly the strongest counterexample I've ever seen, though (barely) technically correct.

And the last deflationary "period" (a single year) before that was ... drumroll... 1949, following 3 years of >8% inflation.

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