We may be talking past one another and seem in agreement mostly except for your opening assessment. The original if clause may be true( "If the expectation is

We may be talking past one another and seem in agreement mostly except for your opening assessment. The original if clause may be true( "If the expectation is that everything will be cheaper next month than this month, that creates an incentive for everyone (and every business) to delay purchases as long as possible (because they will save money buying in the future"), but it is not applicable to the current environment as we are not experiencing deflation, but inflation. As in, business are not expecting lower cheaper ( lower prices ). They will be expecting less high prices. If they will curtail spending it is because got prohibitively expensive. If anything, they will save money buy stocking up, while the price is low. I personally think your interpretation model for what is happening is off here. Hope that makes more sense now. Let me see if I can sum up the main argument until now: You post >> If the expectation is that everything will be cheaper next month than this month, that creates an incentive for everyone (and every business) to delay purchases as long as possible (because they will save money buying in the future). I post >> [ but ] Nothing will be cheaper ( decrease in price ) [ next month ] You post >> I strongly recommend you review the definition of deflation. I post >> "Deflation is a fall in the overall level of prices in an economy and an increase in the purchasing power of the currency. It can be driven by an increase in productivity and the abundance of goods and services, by a decrease in total or aggregate demand, or by a decrease in the supply of money and credit." You post >> "Deflation is negative inflation, if you want to think of it that way. Deflation is _not_ small positive inflation." I post >> this post since we seem to saying the same thing so I revisit initial assumptions