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: Talks continued between Air Canada and the union representing its pilots to avert a possible strike or lockout. Both sides will be in legal strike or lockout positions on Sept 18. That wasn’t the only bit of acrimony in the business world this week. Canada Bread Co. Ltd. is seeking damages from its former majority owner Maple Leaf Foods Inc. related to an alleged industrywide bread price-fixing scheme. Canada Bread’s parent company, Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo, has previously said that it was unaware of the bread maker’s role in fixing prices before its $1.83-billion acquisition in 2014. Along with this big bread news, there was also tantalizing shifts in the food business involving Campbell Soup and General Mills.
1Campbell Soup Co. is on the verge of an historic shift. What does it intend to do?
a. Move its headquarters to London
b. Redesign its iconic red-and-white can
c. Drop “soup” from its name
d. Introduce “Souper Heroes,” an animated YouTube series for kids
c. Drop “soup” from its name. Management said this week the company intends to drop “soup” from its name and become Campbell’s Co. It says the new label will better reflect the company’s diverse product offerings, including Prego pasta sauce and Goldfish crackers.
2Good news! Canadians seem to be easing back on their debt addiction. In 2021, they owed an average of $1.85 for every dollar of disposable income they had. Today, for every dollar of disposable income, they owe an average of:
a. $1.76
b. $1.72
c. $1.65
d. $1.58
a. $1.76. Canadians are backing away from debt as higher interest rates make it more expensive to carry loans, However, the nation can’t start declaring victory over indebtedness just yet. Thanks to those higher interest rates, the portion of Canadians’ take-home pay that is consumed by debt payments now stands at nearly 15 per cent, among the highest readings on record.
3“It sure looks like a perfect world.” Who said that this week?
a. U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris after her debate with Donald Trump
b. Billionaire Jared Isaacman after the first privately funded spacewalk
c. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre after announcing plans to trigger a non-confidence motion in the Trudeau government
d. Taylor Swift after dominating the MTV Video Music Awards
b. Billionaire Jared Isaacman after the first privately funded spacewalk. Isaacman, 41, founder of the Shift4 credit-card processing company, has declined to say how much he invested in the flight aboard a rocket operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
4In the latest outburst of labour unrest in Canada’s transportation sector, Air Canada pilots are threatening to strike. Which is the only group listed here that did NOT strike or get locked out over the past year?
a. Canadian National Railway workers
b. St. Lawrence Seaway workers
c. WestJet mechanics
d. Porter Airlines baggage handlers
d. Porter Airlines baggage handlers. Porter Airlines is the only one of these groups to avoid labour strife in recent months.
5Rival cellphone makers vied for the spotlight this week with flashy new models. Which company introduced a “trifold” smartphone that opens out to create a tablet-sized screen?
a. Apple
b. Samsung
c. Huawei
d. Google
c. Huawei. China’s Huawei introduced its new trifold Mate XT only hours after Apple unveiled its new iPhone 16. The new Huawei product will sell for the equivalent of US$2,800.
6Which Canadian company said this week it is pondering a move of its head office to the United States?
a. Brookfield Asset Management
b. Shopify
c. Constellation Software
d. Canadian Pacific Kansas City
7A hail storm in Calgary in August now ranks as the second most expensive severe-weather incident in history for the Canadian insurance industry. What was the most expensive?
a. The wildfire in Jasper this summer
b. The Fort McMurray fires in 2016
c. The Ontario floods this summer
d. The B.C. wildfires of 2023
b. The Fort McMurray fires in 2016. The Calgary storm will cost insurers about $2.8-billion, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, but that still comes up considerably short of the $3.6-billion in claims caused by the Fort McMurray blaze.
8This week, a Toronto judge sentenced former fashion mogul Peter Nygard for sexual assault. How long a prison sentence did the tycoon receive?
a. Six months
b. One year
c. Nine years
d. Eleven years
d. Eleven years. The judge called Mr. Nygard, 83, a “sexual predator” as he sentenced him to 11 years in prison for multiple crimes committed decades ago. However, Mr. Nygard’s actual time behind bars will work out to only seven years after credit for time already spent in custody, and he could be out on parole in only two years.
9What unit did General Mills agree this week to sell for US$2.1-billion?
a. Its North American yogurt business
b. Its European breakfast cereal business
c. Its Annie’s line of organic pasta
d. Its Blue Buffalo line of pet food
10Toronto-Dominion Bank economists warned this week that Canadians face lower living standards unless:
a. Tax rates are cut
b. Productivity improves
c. Oil prices rebound
d. Canada raises tariff barriers
b. Productivity improves. Canada’s productivity – the amount of output produced per hour of work – has stagnated since the arrival of the pandemic, according to the TD report. In terms of real output per capita, Canada has fallen back to 2014 levels – a shocking and disappointing development.
11Which company was ordered this week to pay US$14-billion in back taxes?
a. Alphabet
b. Microsoft
c. Tesla
d. Apple
d. Apple. A long-running court case finally reached its conclusion when Europe’s top court ordered Apple to pay the equivalent of US$14-billion in back taxes to Ireland. The 10-year-old case has to do with tax benefits that Apple received from Ireland over the course of a couple of decades.
12Why was Ajit Jain, a top executive at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, in the headlines this week?
a. He resigned
b. He was promoted to vice-chairman of Berkshire
c. He sold a large portion of his Berkshire stake
d. He published a tell-all memoir
c. He sold a large portion of his Berkshire stake. Mr. Jain, one of Mr. Buffett’s most trusted lieutenants, sold more than half his stake in Berkshire, according to regulatory filings.
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