P&G Boss to Obama, McCain: Negativity Only Worsens Economy

A.G. Lafley, chairman and chief executive of Procter & Gamble, is urging presidential hopefuls Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama to refrain from making negative remarks about the economy, arguing that such comments only make matters worse.

In an interview with the Financial Times published this morning, Lafley said he is concerned by the "woe is me and ain't it awful" rhetoric common to presidential campaigners. "In my business we don't need excessive negativism. You know we are in a business where psychology matters--even in the staples business--and in the economy psychology matters. It could go negative on the economy, that could be a problem. We will talk ourselves into a worse recession."

P&G, sells more than $40 billion worth of products outside of the U.S., and Lafley also suggested that the presidential candidates to "rewrite the script on free trade."

“I wish there were a little less rhetoric about the evils of trade and especially international commerce. I really do believe . . . that while there are always winners and losers in any transition, by and large the standard of livings have been improving around the world and that in the end is the measure right? I am hoping McCain and Obama will be a different dialogue on trade than Clinton and Obama.”

Lafley admitted he too was “worried” about the combination of rising fuel and commodity costs: “We have never seen the energy cost and commodity cost scope or scale that we have today. There is not a material that we are buying that is not under inflationary pressure and I honestly haven’t seen that before. In the 1970s it was oil and oil derivative materials, now it is agricultural products, it is the full range of minerals and everything is up.”