Thursday, June 26, 2008

Is The Glass Half Full Or Half Empty?

AG Lafley, chairman and chief executive of Procter & Gamble (PG), in an article in today's Financial Times, essentially warns the presidential candidates not to worsen the economic environment with overly pessimistic rhetoric. In the article Mr. Lafley notes,
...he was concerned by the "woe is me and ain't it awful" rhetoric adopted by Hillary Clinton and Mr Obama during their fierce battle for the Democrat nomination.

He stated, "In my business we don't need excessive negativism," said Mr Lafley. "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."
It is human nature to have ones perspective shaped by past events. I wrote an earlier post on this titled, Psychological Bias: Keep In Perspective. However, don't get down on the market and the economy based on old/historical news or data. Sticking with an investment discipline that allows one to uncover attractively priced investment opportunities will likely result in positive investment returns in the long run.

Source:

P&G chief urges US presidential candidates to end gloom rhetoric

Financial Times
By: Elizabeth Rigby and Jonathan Birchall
June 26, 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ce0fd162-4317-11dd-81d0-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1


No comments :