SANDRA SMITH (CO-ANCHOR): Speaking of Main Street, a lot of people in the country are talking about eggs and the lack thereof right now. I have a sister who lives in Austin, Texas. They said they can't find eggs anywhere, Costco and beyond. Although, I went and looked for her, you can go about 30 minutes and you can find eggs on the shelf. But egg prices, there's no doubt, they are way up. I know anybody who does their grocery store shopping that's listening to this are going, they're crazy. In fact, the prices that we have here, that's an average, I feel like most people are going, "the eggs I see on my shelf are way more expensive."
MARK TEPPER (GUEST): And I enjoy my eggs, too. So, this is certainly an issue. Look, I think two things at play here. Number one, the bird flu issue is obviously a concern. Twenty million chickens, egg producing chickens were slaughtered in the fourth quarter of last year. So, that supply, and that obviously impacts supply and demand. But the other issue is that grocery inflation tends to be very sticky. It's not all that often that once prices reach a certain level, and suddenly there is more supply and less demand, that those prices come back down. So, that presents an issue as well.
But look, I think the best solution for us to bring down, or do our best to at least moderate food inflation is to drill, baby, drill, produce more energy, reduce the cost of gas and diesel, and then obviously stop the reckless spending.
