The Price Of Eggs, Inflation, And Pet Peeves -- February 24, 2023

I have a gazillion pet peeves.

This is just one of them.

Every time I see this graph on inflation -- this one was from February, 2022 -- that leads off with eggs as an example of inflation. 

By the way, lettuce is a similar example but for different reasons. I assume something's going on with "butter+margarine," also. If there is nothing that can explain "butter+margarine" then the high price of tubs is probably due to "guilt by association" (price gouging).

Finally, a year into this and we get a great front-page story in The WSJ explaining what's really going on with eggs. It has almost nothing to do with excess government spending, bailouts, the cost of funding Ukraine, or wage pressure. Certainly not the latter. 

It's all about avian flu. Unfortunately it's being The WSJ  paywall. 

Some screenshots:

From the article:

Since February of last year, the avian flu has led to the death of around 58 million farm-raised birds in the U.S., the deadliest outbreak on record. It sent the price of turkey to record highs for Thanksgiving. Weeks later, egg prices hit their own high.

Avian flu outbreaks have long been a risk in the chicken, turkey and egg businesses. In the past, though, the outbreaks subsided after a few months, easing price spikes. Some government officials, scientists and poultry industry executives now say the avian flu is likely to stick around, potentially keeping egg and turkey prices elevated for the foreseeable future.

The loss of poultry flocks to bird flu coincided with a broad rise in the cost of labor, energy and livestock feed, squeezing consumers with higher grocery store prices.

By the way, as we recall, turkey prices weren't all that high, and in fact, one could easily find turkeys at the same price as the previous year, and right after Thanksgiving stores were giving turkey away, But I digress.

Interestingly, there is one chart at The WSJ article that was most enlightening. That chart was literally at the bottom of the article. The chart should have been at the top of the article but it would have "weakened" the tone of the breathlessness of the writer. 

If I remember, I will post that chart later.