One of the U.S.’s biggest economic challenges is the slump in productivity. After climbing steadily for many decades, productivity has slowed dramatically since 2011: Productivity is the key to long-term prosperity. It represents a hard ceiling on the amount of valuable things that a society is able to produce. If productivity flatlines, it means that the pie isn’t growing, and …

  BLOOMBERG A surge in prices for existing homes in Vancouver and Toronto is fueling new construction in Canada’s two most expensive cities. Housing starts jumped to an annualised pace of 218,333 units in June, the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said, the highest since September and a 17 percent increase from a month earlier. The data suggests that builders …

  Hong Kong / AFP Hong Kong property tycoon Thomas Kwok was granted bail on Tuesday, clearing the path to appeal his graft conviction over a high-profile cash for favours scandal. Kwok was jailed in 2014 over a series of payments totalling HK$8.5 million (US$1.1 million) to the city’s former deputy leader Rafael Hui, who was also convicted on graft …