{"id":16038,"date":"2025-02-06T03:23:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T03:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=16038"},"modified":"2025-02-06T03:23:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T03:23:47","slug":"does-the-waffle-house-index-work-for-more-than-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=16038","title":{"rendered":"Does the Waffle House Index work for more than storms?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->US inflation<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=9674a599-37df-4b36-add9-14f72021b2ce&amp;concept-id=7982616a-e179-45f1-86f6-948f1fc35523\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Our UK readers may not be familiar with Waffle House, but the American 24-hour greasy-spoon breakfast chain has become a bit of a <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150215093209\/https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424053111904716604576542460736605364\" data-trackable=\"link\">bellwether<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FliJTGOQ0fQ\" data-trackable=\"link\">crisis<\/a> over the past 15 years. <\/p>\n<p>An ex-FEMA Administrator <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200728031512\/http:\/\/www.fema.gov\/blog\/2011-07-07\/news-day-what-do-waffle-houses-have-do-risk-management\" data-trackable=\"link\">rather<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424053111904716604576542460736605364\" data-trackable=\"link\">famously<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200728031512\/http:\/\/www.fema.gov\/blog\/2011-07-07\/news-day-what-do-waffle-houses-have-do-risk-management\" data-trackable=\"link\">used<\/a> the chain\u2019s operations to gauge the severity of storm fallout. A limited menu meant damage was bad, and a closure meant it was very bad. This got lots of press in 2011, which were simpler times for economics writers and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/node\/rumor-fema-operations-threats\" data-trackable=\"link\">FEMA administrators<\/a> alike. <\/p>\n<p>It turns out that Waffle House\u2019s menu isn\u2019t immune from bird flu, either. <\/p>\n<p>The company has added a 50-cent egg surcharge on all of its menus, according to a statement this week. That\u2019s 50 cents <strong>per egg<\/strong>, which is notable given the types of meals it serves. (Go ahead, take a second to snicker at America\u2019s obesity problem, just to get it out of our system.) <\/p>\n<p>WaHo\u2019s egg breakfast has the choice of two eggs, which now comes with a $1 surcharge for a less-than-$10 meal, or three eggs, which would be $1.50 in surcharges. <\/p>\n<p>The price of eggs was a political problem for the Biden Administration after a 2022 surge of avian flu cases led to widespread culls and egg shortages. And egg prices have climbed again over the past year, as avian flu once again spreads among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aphis.usda.gov\/livestock-poultry-disease\/avian\/avian-influenza\/hpai-detections\/wild-birds\" data-trackable=\"link\">wild birds<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aphis.usda.gov\/livestock-poultry-disease\/avian\/avian-influenza\/hpai-detections\/commercial-backyard-flocks\" data-trackable=\"link\">commercial flocks in the US<\/a>. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A2fbd5308-905b-4d7a-9ba9-e130a2facd09?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A2fbd5308-905b-4d7a-9ba9-e130a2facd09?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3A2fbd5308-905b-4d7a-9ba9-e130a2facd09?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=3 3x\" width=\"2100\" height=\"1500\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>WaHo didn\u2019t introduce the egg surcharge in 2022, though. <\/p>\n<p>For now, we will simply be grateful that this new indicator falls within the purview of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usa.gov\/agencies\/council-of-economic-advisers\" data-trackable=\"link\">the CEA<\/a>, and not, say, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/\" data-trackable=\"link\">the CDC<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9674a599-37df-4b36-add9-14f72021b2ce\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}