Brooks: A Gloomy View

David Brooks is The New York Times' resident "thinking man's conservative," which is to say he is somewhat more conservative than the rest of their leftist ideologues. His most recent column is very pessimistic. Among other things he says:

• The prognosis for the next few years is bad with a chance of worse. And the economic conditions are not even the scary part. The scary part is the political class’s inability to think about the economy in a realistic way.
• Look at the recent Obama stimulus proposal. You may like it or not, but it’s trivial. It’s simply not significant enough to make a difference, given the size of the global mess.
• The world economy has many rigidities. The worst ones are in people’s heads.

Brooks accuses both parties of being ideologically rigid, so neither can consider solutions using pieces from both sides of the aisle. He's probably accurate in this condemnation.