Construction & Infrastructure
How the world gets built, and why building got harder: the industry's 2026 split between a data-center boom and falling housing and factory construction; the history from Roman concrete to the Empire State and China's boom; cement, aggregates, and the companies that own the quarries and kilns; steel, timber, copper, and fuel; the builders and the electrical trades that now lead them; the workforce; the productivity puzzle and the megaprojects that overrun; who pays; and the world's build-out from India to the Gulf. Brought to October: data-center construction up 73% in a year while total spending fell, materials up 8.9% under the metals tariffs and the war's diesel shock, mortgage rates back above 7%, CRH's $8.5 billion purchase of Arcosa, and the stopgap that carried the federal highway program past September 30 to December 11. Where the field argues, over the tariffs on building materials, the labor shortage and the border, why productivity stalled, why American projects cost more, and the federal role, each side makes its case before the evidence. Thirteen worked examples, from where a construction dollar goes to a kilometer of subway built two ways.