Put your 2015 business knowledge to the test,
The top newsmakers of 2015, from Trudeau to Trump
Part one
Who said it? (All figures in Canadian dollars except where indicated) 1. “The Canada-U.S. relationship is much bigger than any one project and I look forward to a fresh start with President Obama to strengthen our remarkable ties in a spirit of friendship and co-operation.” a) Rona Ambrose, interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, reacting to U.S. President Barack Obama’s Nov. 6 rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline b) Justin Trudeau, on the same topic c) Rachel Notley, premier of Alberta, on the same topic 2. “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” a) Stephen Harper on Omar Khadr b) Director Clint Eastwood on Steve McQueen’s role in The Great Escape (1963) c) Real-estate mogul Donald Trump on John McCain 3. “Austerity is not part of the European treaties; democracy and the principle of popular sovereignty are.” a) Bailout seeker Pedro Passos Coelho, prime minister of Portugal b) Bailout seeker Enda Kenny, prime minister of Ireland c) Bailout seeker Alexis Tsipras, prime minister of Greece 4. “Perhaps there will have to be great suffering and destruction before people come together.” — Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for economics, writing about: a) income inequality b) a nuclear arms race in the Middle East c) climate change 5. “Some of (Postmedia’s) newspapers have deteriorated a long way from what I remember. Some of it you can’t avoid. Some of it you can. But please build the quality. Otherwise, you’re going to retreat right into your own end zone, if you’ll pardon the sports metaphor.” a) institutional investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, on a Postmedia analysts’ call in July. b) institutional investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, on the same call. c) Conrad Black, minority investor in Postmedia, on the same call.
The culture business 1. Spectre, the 24th James Bond film in the Eon Productions series, is an acronym for a global terrorist group that has figured in many Bond films. What does S.P.E.C.T.R.E. stand for? a) Strategic Polarized Exploitation of Concentrated Targets of Regime Expulsion b) Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion c) Selective Extortion of Corporate Tactical Resources and Empires 2. On Nov. 11, an unidentified Hong Kong buyer paid $37.8 million to fund a) 252 units of affordable housing b) one year’s worth of medical treatment for 284,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Africa c) the purchase of “The Pink,” a 10.08 carat piece of carbon in the form of a diamond at a Christie’s auction 3. Canadian authors Elizabeth Hay, Joseph Boyden and Linden McIntyre are past winners of the $50,000 a) CIBC Giller Prize b) Scotiabank Giller Prize c) BMO Giller Prize 4. With the 2015 release of his namesake biopic on Steve Jobs, this writer faced accusations that, as with his depiction of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2010’s The Social Network, he grossly distorted reality in depicting his business-tycoon protagonist as a borderline psychopath. a) Oliver Stone b) Aaron Sorkin c) Ben Affleck 5. What was media baron Rupert Murdoch’s response to revelations that GOP candidate Ben Carson had lied about being offered a scholarship to West Point, followed by his declaration on Murdoch’s Fox News that the pyramids were built for grain storage? a) Murdoch withdrew his endorsement of Carson b) He corrected Carson on the pyramids, explaining they were built as dormitories for the slaves who constructed them c) He continued defending Carson, whom Murdoch has tweeted would “terrific” because he would be a “real black president,” unlike the incumbent. Answers: Who said it? 1.b. 2. c. 3. c. 4. c. 5. c. The Culture Business.1. b. 2. c. 3. b. 4. b. 5. c.
Part two
(All figures in Canadian dollars except where indicated) Pipeline politics 1. The sponsor of the proposed $10.6 billion Keystone XL pipeline that U.S. President Barack Obama rejected Nov. 6 is: a) Enbridge Inc. b) TransCanada Corp. c) Imperial Oil Ltd. 2. The Alberta Clipper pipeline, whose proposed expansion is now thought to be in jeopardy as it also crosses the U.S. border, is sponsored by a) Enbridge Inc. b) Kinder Morgan Inc. c) TransCanada Corp. 3. In the 2015 federal election debates, Stephen Harper said U.S. approval of the Keystone XL was a) “likely” b) “almost certain” c) “inevitable” 4. The route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is a) from the Athabasca oilsands to Boston, for crude-oil transport to European markets b) from Athabasca to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, for crude transport to Asian markets c) from Athabasca to Miami, for crude transport to Central and South American markets 5. The sponsor of the pipeline megaproject Energy East, to carry Alberta and Saskatchewan crude oil to Eastern Canadian markets, is a) Imperial Oil Ltd. b) Enbridge Inc. c) TransCanada Corp. Nuptials Name the merger partners: Sold: 1. Roots 2. Cirque du Soleil 3. Mill Street Brewery 4. City National Corp., Los Angeles 5. Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc. Bought by: a.) Labatt Breweries of Canada (owned by Belgian-Brazilian brewing conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A.) b.) Royal Bank of Canada c.) Texas-based TPG Capital, China’s Fosun Capital Group, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. d.) Rite Aid Corp. e.) London, U.K.-based Searchlight Capital Partners LP Answers. Pipeline Politics: 1. b. 2. a. 3. c. 4. b. 5. c. Nuptials:1. e. 2. c. 3. a. 4. b. 5. d.
Part three
(All figures in Canadian dollars except where indicated) Trade-deal craze 1. The pending Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is an ambitious trade pact a) Among the U.S., Japan, Canada and the European Union (EU) b) Between the U.S. and the European Union c) Between Canada and the European Union 2. The 28-member-country EU, with a 2014 GDP of $24.6 trillion, is the world’s a) fourth-largest economy b) second-largest economy c) largest economy 3. An even more ambitious pending trade deal among 12 Asia-Pacific countries accounting for about 60 per cent of world GDP, including Canada and the U.S., is the a) Asia-Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere (APCS) b) Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) c) Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) 4. Talks culminating in that 12-country deal agreement were initiated by which member of the proposed trade pact? a) U.S. b) New Zealand c) Japan 5. Which major economy is not a member of the proposed Asia-Pacific pact? a) Australia b) China c) Chile Trudeau part II 1. Conspicuously missing from Justin Trudeau’s first cabinet, unveiled Nov. 4, is a minister for a) finance b) industry c) the Treasury Board 2. Canada’s new finance minister is a) John McCallum, economist and former minister of state for international financial institutions b) Ralph Goodale, finance minister in the Paul Martin government c) Bill Morneau, rookie Toronto MP and former executive chair of Morneau Shepell, an HR firm 3. At a time when Canada is poised to sign onto the two biggest trade pacts in history, its trade minister, a former journalist with the U.K. Financial Times and the Globe and Mail, is a) Carolyn Bennett b) Jody Wilson-Raybould c) Chrystia Freeland 4. Trudeau campaigned on placing Canada into deficit, if required, to increase investment in infrastructure and social services, for a) two years b) three years c) four years 5. The 12-country Asian-American trade deal, the biggest such pact in history, is opposed by U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, the 15 Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination, organized labour and advocates of affordable access to intellectual property, among others. Justin Trudeau . . . a) opposes it b) supports it Answers. Trade-deal craze: 1. c. 2. c. 3. c. 4. b. 5. b. Trudeau Redux: 1. b. 2. c. 3. c. 4. b. 5. b.
Part four
(All figures in Canadian dollars except where indicated) Surprise! 1. In November, the world’s 30 largest banks were ordered to boost their capital reserves against the possibility of catastrophic losses by $679 billion. Heading the Basel, Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) that made the demand is a) Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the European Central Bank b) Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and former French finance minister c) Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England and former governor of the Bank of Canada 2. Having mused last year of his interest in acquiring U.S. railroad CSX Corp.., Harrison Hunter, CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., was rumoured in November to be lusting for ownership of a) Union Pacific Corp. b) Norfolk Southern Corp. c.) Burlington Northern 3. Bill Ackman, the U.S. billionaire activist investor who has profited mightily by installing Harrison as CEO of CPR, suffering an estimated $4.4-billion paper loss by this fall on his investment in the Montrealbased drugmaker. a) BioChem Pharma Inc. b) Biovail Corp. c) Valeant Pharmaceutical International Inc. 4. In reporting its third-quarter results, holding company Restaurant Brands International Inc., controlled by Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, revealed that newly acquired Tim Hortons, now yoked to RBI’s Burger King chain, accounted for what percentage of RBI’s revenue? a) 15 b) 46 c) 72 5. That’s roughly the same contribution Tim Hortons made when it was earlier yoked to another sad-sack U.S. fast-food chain, a) Applebee’s International Inc. b) Denny’s Corp. c) Wendy’s Co. Auto blues 1. In September, it was revealed that Volkswagen AG had, for most of a decade, cheated on U.S. fuel-emissions tests for VWs, Porsches, Audis and other VW products, affecting the equivalent of more than an entire year’s worth of total VW vehicle production, or a) 3.5 million vehicles b) 7.8 million vehicles c) 11 million vehicles 2. Also in September, General Motors Co. settled with the U.S. Justice Department, paying a $1.2 billion fine for faulty ignition switches implicated in the deaths of a) 12 people b) 37 people c) 124 people 3. Toyota Motor Corp. had to recall thousands of off-road vehicles because their windshield wipers a) seized up in high temperatures b) operated at only one speed c) malfunctioned when they came into contact with water 4. In November, Honda Motor Co. was forced to recall145,000 motorcycles in the U.S. to fix faulty rear brakes. For many of the vehicles, this was the a) first b) second c) third recall to fix the same problem. 5. In Consumer Reports’ annual reliability survey, Infiniti, Cadillac, Ram, Jeep and Fiat ranked as a) the five best makes b) the five worst makes Answers. Surprise! 1. c. 2. b. 3. c. 4. c. 5. c. Auto Blues: 1. c. 2. c. 3. c. 4. c. 5. b.
Part five
(All figures in Canadian dollars except where indicated) Annals of investing 1. Of what enterprise’s growing complexity did Jim Shanahan, analyst at Edward Jones & Co., complain: “It’s very difficult to forecast earnings for a company (like this). We’re not mad scientists.” a) General Electric Co. b) Berkshire Hathaway Inc. c) George Weston Ltd. 2. With assets of $724 billion and a total shareholder value of $438 billion, investors in Berkshire Hathaway are valuing the jumble of Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings — which include Dairy Queen, a major U.S. railroad, leading auto insurer Geico, America’s biggest network of natural-gas pipelines, and Fruit of the Loom apparel — that have been accumulated by 85-year-old CEO Warren Buffett at a) 93 cents on the dollar b) 87 cents on the dollar c) 61 cents on the dollar 3. True or false: Justin Trudeau plans to stick with the Tories’ increase in the maximum annual contribution to tax-free savings accounts, to $10,000 from $5,500. a) True b) False 4. Revenues of McDonald’s Corp., among the most badmouthed companies of the year, gained a mere 2 per cent over the past year, though profits were up by19 per cent. During that same period, investors have reacted to the negativity around McDonald’s by a) pushing the stock down by 47.8 per cent b) pushing the stock down by 21.6 per cent c) pushing the stock up by 17.8 per cent 5. BlackBerry Ltd. has posted three consecutive profitable quarters, booking total profits of $147 million, and coming close to recouping the firm’s 2014 fourth-quarter loss of $148 million. During that period, BlackBerry stock has a) jumped by 63 per cent b) gained 27 per cent c) dropped by 10.3 per cent Did you know? 1. Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the world’s No. 2 apparel maker, is offering which prize for a breakthrough improvement over the current method of recycling, which yields mostly low-quality fibres? a) the after-tax annual profit from two H&M stores b) 12 free three-hour shopping visits c) $1.6 million 2. Bombardier Inc. is seeking an investment from Ottawa to match the $1.3-billion Quebec has ponied up for the firm’s CSeries commuter-jet program. The company is thought to have received $2.2 million in government assistance over the past halfcentury, while Boeing Co. netted how much state assistance over the past 15 years alone? a) $4.2 billion b) $6.9 billion c) $18 billion 3. BlackBerry’s first Android smartphone, launched this fall, is called the a) Pré b) Priv c) Zeus 4. Crude oil, currently priced at about $50 (U.S.), has lost how much of its value since its peak price, in 2008. a) one-third b) half c) two-thirds 5. Which tech giants began experimenting this year with grocery and restaurant food delivery? a) Oracle Corp. and Intel Corp. b) Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. c) Facebook Inc. and IBM Corp. Answers. Annals of Investing: 1. b. 2. c. 3. b. 4. c. 5. c. Did You Know? 1. c. 2. c. 3. b. 4. c. 5. b.