Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: The Bank of Canada delivered an oversized interest-rate cut on Wednesday and said that its fight with inflation is almost over. As widely expected, the bank’s governing council lowered the benchmark policy rate by half a percentage-point, or 50 basis points, to 3.75 per cent. Also being cut this week? Some of Toronto-Dominion Bank’s ratings by Moody’s. The agency lowered the long-term ratings of the bank and its U.S. subsidiary, citing concerns over governance weaknesses and anti-money-laundering failures.
1The Bank of Canada slashed its policy interest rate by a whopping 50 basis points this week. Counting the most recent cut, many times has the bank trimmed interest rates since June?
a. This is the first cut
b. This is the second cut
c. This is the third cut
d. This is the fourth cut
d. This is the fourth cut. The central bank has cut rates four times in just over four months. It spent last year raising interest rates in an effort to bring high inflation under control. Now it faces the opposite problem as inflation slumps below target.
2Smooth talkers: Which of these professions is aiding in the illegal movement of funds, according to a warning from Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency?
a. Real estate agents
b. Lawyers
c. Financial planners
d. Art dealers
b. Lawyers. FINTRAC warned in a special bulletin that some legal professionals are offering a veneer of respectability to questionable transactions. It says the legal profession suffers from a gap of oversight as lawyers outside of British Columbia are not subject to the obligations of Canada’s anti-money-laundering regime.
3Moi arrived in Ontario this week. What the heck is Moi?
a. Royal Bank’s program for high-net-worth families
b. Metro’s loyalty program
c. Shopify’s program for self-employed people
d. Shopper Drug Mart’s health records program
b. Metro’s loyalty program. Moi Rewards is Metro’s loyalty program. It rolled out last year in Quebec and New Brunswick.
4A former chief executive of retailer Abercrombie & Fitch was arrested this week on charges of:
a. Sex trafficking
b. Plotting a shooting
c. Selling drugs
d. Funding African rebels
a. Sex trafficking. Mike Jeffries was arrested on charges of luring men into drug-fuelled sex parties by dangling the promise of modeling for the company’s beefcake ads.
5Oh, oh. The share price of Trump Media & Technology, the money-losing social media arm of Donald Trump’s empire, has done what since mid-September?
a. Lost 50 per cent
b. Nearly tripled
c. Flat-lined
d. Been suspended from trading
b. Nearly tripled. Profits have never been a thing at Trump Media, so you can assume the company’s soaring share price is an implicit bet on the rising odds of The Donald winning the presidential election next month.
6Why did the accounting firm of Ernst & Young fire several U.S. employees this week?
a. For taking time off for religious holidays for a non-existent religion
b. For wearing revealing clothing to the office
c. For multitasking
d. For accepting gifts from clients
c. For multitasking. Ernst & Young fired employees for taking part in two online courses simultaneously. EY said the practice violated its code of conduct. Some of us might argue it was a rational reaction to online training courses.
7Quebec-based convenience-store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard is offering US$47-billion – yes, that’s billion with a “b” – for the Japanese parent of 7-Eleven. If successful with its bid, how is Couche-Tard planning to raise such a mammoth amount of cash?
a. By borrowing it
b. Through a massive stock offering
c. By selling off much of its U.S. and Western Canadian operations
d. Through a private equity deal with Canada Pension Plan
a. By borrowing it. Couche-Tard plans to borrow most of the amount if its bid proves successful. That would presumably be good news for shareholders since their equity stakes will not be heavily diluted by the issuance of new shares.
8Go figure: The S&P 500 index of big U.S. stocks hit a record high this month, presumably because many investors are feeling great about what lies ahead. Yet gold also hit a record high this week, presumably because many investors are feeling nervous about what lies ahead. Which of the two assets has done the best since January?
a. The S&P 500
b. Gold
c. They have produced near identical returns
b. Gold. How frothy is this market? Since Jan. 1, gold has shot up 33 per centshot up 33 per cent and the S&P has advanced 22 per cent. (Calculated in U.S. dollars, dividends not included, to Oct. 24.) Yet neither has come close to bitcoin, which is up 59 per cent.
9Which of these European countries just held a referendum on joining the European Union?
a. Romania
b. Montenegro
c. Andorra
d. Moldova
d. Moldova. Moldovans voted by a hair-thin margin to enshrine the country’s move toward the EU in the country’s constitution. The results were marred by accusations of Russian interference aimed at defeating the motion.
10The federal Liberals finally acknowledged the obvious this week and acknowledged their wide-open-door policy toward immigrants and temporary foreign workers was a mistake. What percentage of Canadians told pollsters this month that there is too much immigration into Canada?
a. 42 per cent
b. 51 per cent
c. 58 per cent
d. 64 per cent
c. 58 per cent. The unprecedented surge of immigrants and temporary foreign workers has added to pressures on the housing market and health care system. Ottawa is now slashing the targets from 500,000 immigrants a year to below 400,000 annually over the next three years. It is also attempting to rein in the number of temporary residents.
11Why is Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, in hot water with the U.S. Department of Justice?
a. For giving away US$1-million a day to U.S. voters who sign a petition
b. For giving away US$1-million a day to U.S. voters who promise to vote for Donald Trump
c. For giving away US$1-million a day to U.S. voters who will go door-to-door for Mr. Trump
d. For giving away US$1-million a day to U.S. voters who will “Tweet for Trump”
a. For giving away US$1-million a day to U.S. voters who sign a petition. The DOJ has warned Mr. Musk that he may be breaking the law, which prohibits anyone from paying people to register to vote. Mr. Musk is giving away money to randomly selected voters in swing states who have signed a petition in favour of first and second amendment rights. The catch is that you have to be registered to vote in certain states to sign the petition – which means the prizes can be viewed as an inducement to register to vote.
12A mystery donor who has given more than $200-million to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto has finally been revealed. The donor is:
a. The wife of a cryptocurrency promoter
b. The husband of a noted AI researcher
c. The daughter of a mining billionaire
d. The father-in-law of an e-commerce entrepreneur
d. The father-in-law of an e-commerce entrepreneur. Bruce McKean is the father-in-law of Tobias Lutke, founder of Ottawa-based Shopify, and was an early investor in the e-commerce company. He says he was motivated to give by watching several loved ones struggle with mental illness.
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