To avoid ambiguity or confusion it's best to follow established practice when specifying a time. "PT" refers not to a time, but to a time zone, and can therefore be used (implicitly and unambiguously) to refer to the current time in the Pacific time zone. If you specify a time (rather than a time zone), you should use the correct one (PDT or PST).

Understanding the Context

Using PST to mean "the current time in the ... I would argue that "the current rates" gets its point across just fine, given the assumption that most readers will tend not to think the narration prescient. When I was reading that, I didn't see a tense problem as I subconsciously assumed "current" meant 'current' within the time-frame of the topic. How to say that something is "current" but at another point in time 'Then-current' perhaps ought to be allowed.

Key Insights

'Current' is obviously, after all, a deictic term – eg 'This is the Estimate for the current year, 1879-1880'. [Internet] Context informs the time-reference of the period being referred to as 'current', and 'then-current' obviously refers back to the period just mentioned in a passage. Here's what I got from Longman English Dictionary. status: a situation at a particular time, especially in an argument, discussion etc. state: the physical or mental condition that someone or something is in For example, how do you interpret these two sentences: What is the current status of this project?

Final Thoughts

What is the current state of this project? Is there a word that can be used to describe something that is either close in time, or currently happening? Something like "proximate" or "imminent", but without the implication that the thing ha... While all will be understood, the convention in this situation is to use "at the time of writing". Alternatively you could say "as of October 2014". "At the time of writing we had just declared war with IS." "As of October 2014 the tax rate is 20%." phrases - Is 'at the time of writing' correct?

- English Language ...