I can't find it now, but I read somewhere that CalMaine had managed to mostly escape getting avian flu in its own birds. So it would make sense that their prof

I can't find it now, but I read somewhere that CalMaine had managed to mostly escape getting avian flu in its own birds. So it would make sense that their profits would dramatically increase if the price of eggs goes way up b/c of bird flu, but they can still sell the same number of eggs b/c their birds are not sick/dead. That explanation wouldn't require collusion, just normal supply and demand in a competitive market. (Cold comfort if you're poor and can't afford eggs anymore, though.) You could argue it's price-gouging, but, well, they're a public for-profit company. They're pretty much required by their shareholders to price-gouge when they can do so legally. And of course it could be some of this (legal), but also some amount of collusion to fix prices (likely illegal).