How Milo make profit in the famous "Catch-22" novel by selling eggs?

Question

In the novel "Catch-22", how does Milo make profit when he buys egg for 7 cents and sells them back for 5 cents? From what I see, Milo keeps saying that the syndicate actually makes the profit, but that profit is made by Milo's money, which he loses. It looks like Milo is losing his money and he doesn't even know about it?

Answer 1

I haven't read it in years, so I cheated:

"Seven-cent Maltese eggs cost the sellers in Malta four and one-quarter cents each to procure. Milo is actually buying the eggs from himself in Malta, which means that as a seller there he is making two and three-quarter cents each egg. After he resells the seven-cent eggs to the mess halls for five cents each, he is still making a three-quarter cent profit per egg.

However, it turns out that Milo's Maltese eggs are actually one-cent Sicilian eggs which he has secretly shipped to Malta to drive up their value, yielding him another three and one-quarter cents profit per egg.

In short: in all these dealings, where Milo is the producer, consumer, and middleman (twice), he can afford a two cent per-egg loss, because overall the syndicate is making six cents revenue per egg. And everyone has a share."