UPDATE: From the comments: “I think there is a legal Laffer curve, and we are choking on so much law we are now past the inflection point.” Thanks to reader Fred Siesel for pointing this one out.
When did use of the term "inflection point" come into vogue? I am seeing it more and more. Perhaps people think that "inflection point" sounds more learned than "maximum" or "minimum." It may sound cooler, but it doesn't mean the same thing.
An inflection point of a graph is a point where the convexity changes, like this:
With respect to an observer at the bottom of the graph, the curve is concave to the left of x=0, and convex to the right. This makes the point (0,0) an inflection point.
In the comment about the Laffer curve above, it is clear that the author doesn't mean this sort of thing. He simply means maximum point.
The more fancy the term, the more sure you should be about its use.
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