An investigation into egg prices • Hacker News Board

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#141

Post by titanomachy » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 3:35 PM UTC

quacksilver wrote: post #140

bsder wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Understanding a problem requires a holistic view of the larger system. It does, but the result is extremely uncomfortable. And the solving it will require actions that are even more uncomfortable. You have to come to grips with the fact that there are monopolies at every single level. There is no inventory anywhere except bottom. There is no over capacity at any level. Consequently, supply and demand simply do not…

>What are you gonna do about it? There are some other options: Substitute blood - https://nordicfoodlab.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/2013-9-blood-... - I am not sure why people don't do this but maybe they are squeamish. Food grade blood is cheap and readily available from slaughterhouses and butchers. Buy some chickens

> I am not sure why people don't do this

I don't substituting blood for eggs is a widely-known option. I'd never heard of it before now, and I have a somewhat above-average amateur interest in cooking and food science.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#142

Post by generalizations » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 3:35 PM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #63

drivebyhooting wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what I’m hearing is: * Keep all the existing obligations * Continue to run a deficit * Hope that we can finance these growing expenses through treasuries or debasement * all the while ignoring the hollowing out of American industrial base and expertise * also allowing a large portion of the population to become redundant, unproductive, and irrelevant in the world economy

> Hope that we can finance these growing expenses through treasuries or debasement No need for "debasement", but sure. > all the while ignoring the hollowing out No, we should not be doing this. But the left has been talking about this for decades and was mocked for it. The idea that billionaires and the recipients of their largesse are how we stop "ignoring the hollowing out" just seems laughable to me. > allowing a…

>> all the while ignoring the hollowing out of American industrial base and expertise > But the left has been talking about this for decades and was mocked for it.

> These are absolutely things we should focused on, and it is true that the left-as-represented-by-the-Democratic party has not really done so (certainly not until Biden, and even then it was relatively weak sauce).

So, you're right - up until this "regime change" not a lot has been done. And at least this is moving in approximately the right direction. Even if this is a rough amputation, at the very least it's likely to remove the tumor, when nothing up till now has done so.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#143

Post by absolutelastone » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 3:48 PM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #121

absolutelastone wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could make it your self for the cost of soybeans basically. It's a cheap food sold as a gourmet item because it's rare. Like a lot of other fermented foods.

> It's a cheap food sold as a gourmet item because it's rare. This statement is _entirely_ dependent upon where you live. If you have lots of East/SouthEast Asian immigrants in your community, it will be a regular commodity in any supermarket -- "ethnic" or not. Lots of readers here live in the Bay Area. A regular block of 300/400g fresh tofu is probably cheap as chips in their local supermarket. > Like a lot of _oth…

I meant "cheap" because it is easy to make from scratch.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+do+I++make+tofu+from+scr...

As for "other fermented foods" your final sentence admits it works as used in my post.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#144

Post by AnimalMuppet » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #138

drivebyhooting wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arrogance won’t solve any problems nor convince those who disagree with you. You could start by stating your assumptions and basic axioms. Rather than asserting your conclusions and name calling things heterodox.

heterodox is a common term in the economics world. imagine it says "mainstream" if you prefer. > You could start by stating your assumptions and basic axioms. I'm not here to write a text book on economics. I'm here to point out that "debt is bad, we can never carry on like this" is a belief, not a statement of fact.

"Orthodox" is the word you're looking for. "Heterodox" means not mainstream. MMT is heterodox.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#145

Post by sangnoir » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

spit2wind wrote: post #124

jmyeet wrote: post #34

We see this all the time. There is some shock or reduction to supply and the price goes up but it always goes up way more than the supply change would necessarily warrant. Then it takes forever to return to normal (if it ever does). Interestingly, in the early weeks of the Kamala Harris campaign last year, she actually advocated to fighting or stopping "price gouging", something that was wildly popular: 66% of respon…

The executive branch is currently being gutted?

I'll give you one guess as to which branch of government most agencies belong to. Yes, agencies are being gutted.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#146

Post by absolutelastone » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 4:50 PM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #138

drivebyhooting wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arrogance won’t solve any problems nor convince those who disagree with you. You could start by stating your assumptions and basic axioms. Rather than asserting your conclusions and name calling things heterodox.

heterodox is a common term in the economics world. imagine it says "mainstream" if you prefer. > You could start by stating your assumptions and basic axioms. I'm not here to write a text book on economics. I'm here to point out that "debt is bad, we can never carry on like this" is a belief, not a statement of fact.

How about "commonsense" instead?

Everything in macroeconomics is a belief, because it is clearly far from a hard science.

Common sense always applies to some degree when it is based on logic. Also my belief is that a system where there is no limits on government spending and debt seems obviously unstable and likely to become infinitely corrupt.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#147

Post by AnimalMuppet » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

wakawaka28 wrote: post #42

ericjmorey wrote: post #8

Harris and Walz campaigned specifically on addressing the issues raised by this article. People didn't care if they even understood. We have someone that's implementing a kleptocracy instead. This is not getting solved for at least a decade, probably 50+ years before another regime change occurs.

Sir, Harris did nothing about high egg prices when she was in office. Neither did Biden. They presided over some of the highest inflation in American history. Whether it was their fault or not they didn't do a damn thing to fix it. What is Trump doing? Promoting imports of cheaper eggs from abroad, if nothing else. He is the first politician this century to make a big deal out of balancing the budget and our imports/…

Some of the highest inflation in American history? Easy to see you weren't around in 1979. Try 14% inflation. This? This was very little.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#148

Post by dartos » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 5:20 PM UTC

voxl wrote: post #24

dartos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 50+ years before another regime change occurs. A little pessimistic, no? People thought the blue wave would never end after Obama was elected. No way to tell what the future holds.

Trump will try a dictator power grab. This isn't even questionable seeing as he already tried to do this. The only question at this point is if everyone else in power goes along with it or they scoff like they did last time. Seeing as how there are a lot less principled people involved, and the oligarchs enjoy the idea of personal techno-fiefdoms the odds are at least non-negligible that the USA as a democracy could…

Sure, but I have money on him not living to the end of his term.

I don’t think most republicans like trump, he just has a cult following.

I also don’t think that any other republican can garner that kind of following. Trump has aura in a way that no other public figure has right now.

I don’t think any regime he sets up would survive his death.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#149

Post by kjkjadksj » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 5:27 PM UTC

Anyone frequenting more than one grocery store can quickly see its not a supply and demand issue setting prices. A few grocery stores never budged setting prices and charged the same and then the frantic news cycle caused people to buy 4x the amount of eggs they need, causing inventory shortages.

And then there are other stores that saw this as an opportunity to raise egg prices to like $13 a dozen. Those eggs basically go unsold.

I think at this point the biggest factor in the egg supply crunch is that its so publicized and making people act poorly. As a result we see the effective number of available eggs crash as some of these are marked up and go unsold and some linger in someones fridge for a month before consumption. If everyone just bought their usual load of eggs maybe there wouldn’t even be a supply issue.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#150

Post by kjkjadksj » Mon, Mar 10, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #64

SoftTalker wrote: post #7

Egg prices are high compared to what they used to cost but still under $1.00 for a two-egg meal. There's not a protein source that's much cheaper, I think the egg producers are exploiting a certain inelasticity of demand. People don't like the price increases but eggs are still very cheap food.

$1 for 8g of protein? Tuna/sardines are a bargain by that measure.

Are you seeing how much a can of sardines go for these days? Somehow they’ve been priced as a delicacy. Even spam isn’t cheap anymore.