Such thinking stands in contrast to the more common view that the current downturn will be relatively mild, requiring no more help than Congress is currently considering.
"Our members remain of the view that the current account charging system is fair and legal.
"I'm gradually coming around to the view that the current system ought to be scrapped," he wrote.
"We are of the view that the current negative environment as a whole is unlikely to reverse in the short term.
If you take the view that the current housing crisis is the product of the contradictions of the British economy rather than some agglomeration of accidents, then a Marxist diatribe is easy to write.
This passivity, combined with the widespread view that the current Tory opposition is spectacularly inadequate, is reflected in polls indicating that Tony Blair's Labor government will retain power in the election in June barring any unspeakably damaging scandal.
He repeated the Bush administration's view that the current method -- which bases key calculations on a single interest rate tied to the 30-year Treasury bond -- must be replaced by a method that uses a series of interest rates.
Those are strong arguments, adding up to the view that the current situation, with all its ambiguities, does less harm than would be the case if the law sought clarity.
Richard Lovett, the agency's president, echoed the view that the current warfare between William Morris and I.C.M. helps Creative Artists, which has deliberately sought to soften its image as the town's bully.
And now, optimistic forecasting is swamping a minority view that the current recession, more than any of the nine others since 1945, could endure, dooming the economy to contraction or very sluggish growth for months or years.
