This is the same behavior that happens when a hurricane is going to strike somewhere and a evacuation is issued for the population. All the hotels in surrounding areas raise the price of hotel rooms for the people who evacuate. It's call Price Gouging and in a number of places it is illegal. It needs to be illegal everywhere.

If you lived in area like this one spot in Illinois that produces more horseradish then every other place in the world, You would expect you could buy horseradish cheaper there than anywhere else. But somehow the farmer next door to you, starts selling it for the same price that he sell it on the other side of the planet, which is more expensive because of the transportation costs, packaging, etc.

The is what late-stage capitalism is all about. It is about using the same economic schemes large companies use to price oil. Even though oil can be produced in the US far cheaper than other places, the Saudis control and tell the US what the price of oil should be. Now they treat all commodities like that, it is why food has gone out of sight. We decided a number of years ago to use food (corn) as fuel. Allowing Wall Street to act like OPEC and set the price of corn. Starving people in poor countries (such as Mexico) who rely of corn not for ethanol, but food.
As the price of corn rose so did other foods rise, as corn became more valuable, farmers and companies planted more corn as they made more money using their land for corn than other crops, such as rice or wheat, oats or barley. Forcing those who didn't plant corn to raise there prices.

The sad part is corn isn't even the best plant to make ethanol out of , they just have the biggest lobby in Washington. Certain forms of bamboo with a higher sugar content and biomass, (more ethanol per acre), is a much better plant to use to make ethanol.

This is the exact same economic nonsense that is increasing the cost of energy in the US.

As my Mom said back in the seventies, (a visionary genius), solar power will become common as soon as companies figure out how to charge us for using our sun for energy as if they own it. Even now certain states are taxing people who go off grid with solar, justifying the tax by saying it increases the prices of electricity for everyone else who stays on the grid. Its why large electric companies are offering to put solar panels on your house, they recieve free energy they sell to others and still charge you.

Capitalism just truly and forever sucks. We need laws that protect us from companies that don't have a conscience. Capitalism with a Conscience is the only economic plan that is fair.