Take our monthly biz quiz … before you totally forget all the interesting things that happened in May in the worlds of business and economics. Your brain will thank you for it. (The hardest question: No 13.)
1. Starting May 5, some US McDonald's patrons received newfangled utensils in which French fries acted as edible tines. What were these lovely devices called?
2. Rank the cities from most expensive to least as per a Savills report on their cost per square metre for prime property: Dubai, Hong Kong, Monaco, New York.
3. Still with the Savills study, one square metre of prime property in Monaco costs as much as how many square metres in Dubai (answer correct if within two)?
4. A tech billionaire named Scott Farquhar paid an Aussie-record US$56 million to buy a mansion in Sydney. What is the name of the mansion (clue: also the name of a Seinfeld character)?
5. And how old is the billionaire Farquhar?
Answers:
1. frorks
2. Monaco, Hong Kong, New York, Dubai
3. 6.8
4. Elaine
5. 37
6. Berkshire Hathaway held its annual shareholders meeting on May 6. According to Reuters, what percentage of his daily calories does the Berkshire chief Warren Buffett derive from Coca-Cola products (correct if within five)?
7. The Berkshire meeting is sometimes called a "Woodstock for capitalists". Question: did the original Woodstock feature a billionaire CEO rambling on about share prices to a roomful of tittering seniors?
8. Seriously, check the picture. Can you picture Jimi Hendrix in this picture?
9. At the time of the meeting, what was the price of a single class A share in Berkshire Hathaway on the New York Stock Exchange?
a) $2,500
b) $25,000
c) $250,000
d) $2.5 million
10. And what was the share price at the end of 1987?
a) $295
b) $2,950
c) $29,500
d) $295,000
Answers:
6. 25 per cent
7. No it did not
8. No you can not
9. c
10. b
11. Alibaba (led by Jack Ma, pictured) reported its latest quarterly results. Its revenue for the period was roughly:
a) equal to Amazon’s
b) half of Amazon’s
c) a sixth of Amazon’s
12. What was the change in the United Airlines share price one month after the April 9 dust-up in which they dragged a bloodied passenger off a plane?
a) up 10.8 per cent
b) down 1.4 per cent
c) down 21.4 per cent
13. Snap, the parent of Snapchat, reported its first-quarter earnings on May 11. Within three, how many dollars did it lose for every dollar of revenue?
14. Asda, the UK's third largest retailer, also reported results on May 18. Which big American retailer owns Asda?
15. On May 21, Egypt raised interest rates to combat inflation. Within three percentage points what was the country's year-on-year inflation rate in April?
Answers:
11. c
12. a
13. $14
14. Walmart
15. 31 per cent
16. Ford named Jim Hackett (pictured at left) as its new chief executive. What position did he play for the University of Michigan gridiron team in the 1970s?
a) centre
b) off-centre
c) fly-half
d) flanker
17. Which tech titan delivered the commencement address at Harvard University on May 25 (clue: he dropped out of Harvard)?
18. The US retailer Sears on May 25 reported its first quarterly profit in almost two years. Within 20 years, when was the first Sears catalogue published?
19. And in what city was Sears founded (clue: look up, way up)?
20. A computer program from what company has defeated the world champion at the ancient board game Go?
Answers:
16. a
17. Mark Zuckerberg
18. 1888
19. Chicago, where for decades the Sears Tower (as it was then known) ranked as the world’s tallest building.
20. Google – its AlphaGo beat Ke Jie, a mortal, in two straight games. (Alphabet, the Google parent, is also a valid answer to this question).
Scoring scale
16-20 correct: Farquhar
11-15: Ford
6-10: French fry
1-5:Frork
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