Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government tabled its first federal budget on Tuesday, and while it’s maybe not as transformative as advertised, there’s a lot in there, including: a new ‘super-deduction,’ public service cuts and a flashy task for CBC. But what, specifically has the Liberals’ budget proposed to do? Take our quiz and find out.
d. A tax break for businesses making new capital investments. The productivity super-deduction is part of Ottawa’s attempt to kickstart private-sector investment. The deduction speeds up the rate at which businesses can write off new capital investments for tax purposes.
c. About 30,000. The 2025 budget aims to cut about 30,000 public-service jobs, bringing the government’s workforce back to around 330,000 people by 2028-29. That is roughly where it stood in 2021-22.
b. Encouraging Canada’s participation in the Eurovision song contest. The government said it will provide $150-million to the CBC to strengthen its mandate and “better reflect the needs of Canadians.” One of those needs, apparently: “to explore participation in Eurovision.” Ottawa says it is working with the public broadcaster to see about taking part in the annual international song contest run by the European Broadcasting Union.
b. Amazon and OpenAI agreed to the massive deal, which will enable the ChatGPT maker to run its artificial intelligence systems on Amazon’s cloud computing services. This is impressive stuff for both companies – but a bit of wariness may be in order. OpenAI has recently taken on more than US$1-trillion worth of financial obligations to acquire AI infrastructure ranging from data centres to computer chips. The problem is that OpenAI has yet to generate profits. So how does a company without profits finance a trillion bucks of investment? That’s an excellent question for ChatGPT.
d. US$1-trillion. Mr. Musk is already worth a record-breaking US$500-billion. Chump change, he says. The eccentric tycoon is seeking a further US$1-trillion payout if Tesla hits some key targets, which could make him the world's first trillionaire.
c. Cash on the balance sheet. Mr. Buffett, who has a nose for value, isn’t seeing many bargains in today’s exuberant stock market. His Berkshire Hathaway flagship now holds a record US$381.7-billion in cash.
a. It was acquired by a U.S. miner. Chicago-based Coeur Mining is aiming to acquire New Gold for $9.5-billion. If approved, the takeover will see one of Canada’s leading intermediate gold producers fall into American hands.
d. Questrade Financial Group has secured final approval for a licence to launch a new Canadian bank. The company wants to diversify beyond low-cost stock trading and plans to launch banking operations under the name Questbank.
a. It is selling sex toys. France is moving to suspend online fast-fashion retailer Shein after the country’s consumer regulator found that childlike sex dolls and weapons were being sold on the company’s site. The controversy mars the opening of the Chinese company’s first physical shop in a Paris department store.
c. Tylenol. Kimberly-Clark is buying Tylenol maker Kenvue in a cash-and-stock deal worth about US$48.7-billion ($68.4-billion). The acquisition will create a massive consumer-goods company spanning familiar brands from Kenvue’s Listerine mouthwash and Band-Aid bandages to Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle toilet paper and Kleenex tissues.
a. Yellow peas. Ouch. Canada is the second-largest producer of peas in the world, but exporters are facing tough times after India announced it was slapping 30-per-cent duties on all imports of yellow peas. Canadian producers are already in turmoil as a result of China’s decision to slap 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian peas earlier this year.
b. Persnickety, The label on every made-in-Canada Tilley hat reads, “Hand-crafted with Canadian persnicketiness.”