Maybe There Was an Egg Cartel After All

Commenters focused on allegations that large egg producers used an electronic exchange - Egg Clearinghouse - to submit high, nonbinding bids that moved a small interdealer price index and thus pushed up retail contract prices, an effect likened to LIBOR-style manipulation. Several explained the mechanics: bidding and canceling, submitting small high-price orders to change displayed prices, and using low-volume market signals to influence a much larger retail market (jt2190, seanhunter, skybrian, SamBam). Many argued the exchange design made manipulation easy and called for structural fixes or stronger regulation (PowerElectronix, SoftTalker, alyeska2), while others compared it to other commodity cartels and said price-fixing is common where enforcement is weak (johnnyApplePRNG, cameldrv).

Opinion split over how consequential the scheme was and what to do about it. SocialGradients estimated the manipulation accounted for about 1% of price increases, while yed and others pointed to a sharp price drop after the investigation’s announcement as evidence of impact. Some urged much harsher penalties and criminal enforcement (miltonlost), others blamed political choices and weak agencies (bix6, nekusar). Several related personal anecdotes of regionally stable local or cage-free prices (BashiBazouk, dhruvmittal, FuriouslyAdrift), and critics argued this episode undermines faith in economics and market institutions (kmeisthax, pessmizer).