The Justice Department has opened an investigation into an alleged price-fixing scheme among egg producers that threatens to keep the consumer price index pumped up and cause President Trump a great deal of trouble in honoring his campaign pledge to bring inflation down.
The probe comes after prices have doubled over the past year and eggs are sometimes entirely absent from grocery store shelves. Grocers say eggs are one of the leading drivers of food inflation over the past few months. President Trump vowed to bring down inflation once he entered office for his second term.
The investigation is in its early stages. The department sent a letter to some egg companies that instructed them to preserve documents about their pricing conversations with customers and competitors, as well as communications with Urner Barry—which is now called Expana and tracks…
