On its face, this is a normal market response: if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up.
The criminal conspiracy part here was manipulating the index prices in tandem so that everybody raised prices in lockstep.
On its face, this is a normal market response: if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up.
The criminal conspiracy part here was manipulating the index prices in tandem so that everybody raised prices in lockstep.
> if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up.
How much did supply go down considering that Cal-Maine Foods, Inc is (or at least was) the single largest supplier of eggs in the country? Ultimately their profits increased 718% (https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-main...) which seems unlikely to be explained away by reduced supply. They were price gouging and fixing prices with the other large suppliers to prevent consumers from just switching to those brands while small egg producers may have had issues with avian flu keeping their fairly priced products off the shelves.
I'm agreeing with you here? All I'm saying is that one company raising prices and raking in profits by itself is not a crime. The key parts here are conspiring with other producers to make sure everybody does the same, and manipulating the index to make it look legit.