Food prices are on the rise again. What’s behind the increase
CNN
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a grocery store here was plumb out of eggs.
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a grocery store here was plumb out of eggs. An hour and a half north in Richfield, some eggs could be had, but they weren’t cheap. That dozen cost $1.70 more — a good 40% higher — than it did just four months ago. In November, egg prices shot up by 8.2% nationwide, logging one of the highest monthly spikes in the past two decades, according to Consumer Price Index data released last week. And it’s not just eggs — shoppers have seen jumps in beef, coffee and non-alcoholic beverages, driving up overall grocery prices to their largest monthly gain since January 2023. And more increases appear to be coming down the pike for the pulped-paper-packed protein: Wholesale prices for chicken eggs soared by nearly 55% last month, and wholesale food prices rose by 3.1% (their highest monthly increase in two years). Economists say not to panic. The “egg-flation” and sudden price hikes in some major food categories are reflections of isolated incidents rather than something systemic and indicative of a reacceleration of inflation. That doesn’t make it any easier to stomach, however, for Americans worn down by years of prices rising much faster than they typically do.
President-elect Donald Trump announced he will elevate Andrew Ferguson, a current Republican commissioner on the FTC, to be the agency’s chair. The decision will likely be welcome news for some businesses, but certainly not all, and least of all for Big Tech — whom Ferguson has sharply criticized and, in the case of Google, has gone to court against while serving as Virginia’s solicitor general.