The Latest Breaking News from Industrial Revolution

For most of human history, the stars blazed in an otherwise dark night sky. But starting around the Industrial Revolution, as artificial light increasingly lit cities and towns at night, the stars began to disappear.

Britain industrialised first, and several other nations in Western Europe and North America followed soon thereafter, says Jared Rubin

Duncan Weldon’s excellent book, Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through, an economic history of Britain from the Industrial Revolution up to the pandemic, almost had a different title: “I wouldn’t start from here”, based on the old joke about the tourist asking for directions.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said the Lebanese government's slowness to implement desperately-needed reforms was exacerbating the country's economic meltdown, even as officials met to discuss an urgent and long-delayed bailout. The IMF statement followed a three-day visit to Beirut of the fund's representatives to discuss with Lebanese officials…