Fleischer stipulated two caveats: the war in Iraq has the potential to cause "massive economic disruption" and delay recovery; and, investor appetite for risk is low, meaning few necessary mergers and acquisitions will take place.

In the meantime, oversupply of such infrastructure as communications bandwidth, economic uncertainty, political risk and "flagrant corporate wrongdoing" will make the outlook for the rest of 2003 bleak.

"Today, we find ourselves almost universally at a point of deep pessimism," Fleischer told the first gathering of the symposium's 1,700 attendees, down from 1,800 a year ago.

"All in all, it's hard to imagine how our business and political affairs could be moving in a worse direction.''