Low Inflation Causes Consumer to Delay Purchases and Undercuts Profits and Jobs

In an article discussing the drop in the year over year inflation rate in the euro zone to 0.4 percent, the New York Times told readers that the inflation rate could fall further, turning into deflation, which it told readers:

"causes consumers to delay purchases and undercuts corporate profits and jobs."

That is true of deflation, but it is also true of very low inflation. The reported inflation rate is an average of the inflation rate seen in millions of different goods and services being s...