Geologists have discovered vast deposits of iron, copper, gold, and other minerals in Afghanistan, according to a front-page story in Monday's New York Times. Worth an estimated $1 trillion, these resources -- if exploited -- could fundamentally transform the country.
But for better or for worse? Countries with extraordinary mineral wealth -- think of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia, and Iraq -- often have extraordinary economic and political ailments. Afghanistan has plenty of both, but that doesn't mean the country is irrevocably doomed to fall prey to what academics have dubbed "the resource curse" -- the idea that natural riches often create more problems than they solve.
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