Three Bombs

Tom Friedman writes today in the NYT:

Today’s youth are growing up in the shadow of three bombs — any one of
which could go off at any time and set in motion a truly nonlinear, radical
change in the trajectory of their lives.

The first, of course, is still the nuclear threat, which, for my
generation, basically came from just one seemingly rational enemy, the Soviet
Union, with which we shared a doctrine of mutual assured destruction. Today, the
nuclear threat can be delivered by all kinds of states or terrorists, including
suicidal jihadists for whom mutual assured destruction is a delight, not a
deterrent.

But there are now two other bombs our children have hanging over them:
the debt bomb and the climate bomb....

This moment reminds me of an image John Holdren, the president’s science
adviser, uses when discussing the threat of climate change, but it also applies
to the dollar: “We’re driving in a car with bad brakes in a fog and heading for
a cliff. We know for sure that cliff is out there. We just don’t know exactly
where it is. Prudence would suggest that we should start putting on the brakes.”

I agree with this one hundred and ten percent.