Bloomberg Manhattan home sales slipped 1.2% in the fourth quarter — and that’s the best news for the market in two years. It was the smallest year-over-year decline in deals since buyers started retreating in 2017, according to a report by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. While home-shoppers are still wary of overpaying in a …

Bloomberg Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke delivered what he called “a relatively upbeat” assessment of the US central bank’s ability to fight the next recession. While the Fed has limited room to cut short-term interest rates because they’re already so low, Bernanke argued that quantitative easing and forward guidance could provide enough extra punch to combat a future economic …

Bloomberg Emerging Asia’s top-performing currency in 2019 may find itself dethroned this year by a rival that’s also armed with a strong current-account surplus. Both the Thai baht, which took the regional crown with a 9% gain last year versus the US dollar, and the Taiwanese dollar climbed above the psychologically significant 30-per-dollar level this week. Scotiabank, among the top …