infrastructure development

The U.S. construction industry went from bad to worse in July, and then retroactively worse still. The Commerce Department announced Wednesday that spending in the sector fell a worse-than-expected 1% in July, and revised June's estimate downward from a 0.1% increase to an 0.8% decline.

Newly located deposits in Afghanistan could be a source of wealth for an impoverished nation crippled by decades of war. But getting those minerals out of the ground will require years of development and billions of dollars in investment.