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 in business and investing: Irish rock icon U2 was the first band to perform at Sphere (no, The, necessary) last weekend in Las Vegas. The venue – the world’s largest spherical structure, measuring 516 feet wide and 366 feet tall – seats 18,000, and features immersive audio and video technology. And while the project went over budget in the end, the initial financial forecast was itself eye-watering.
Meanwhile, the former CEO of a crypto-exchange company is on trial for federal charges, the newly minted Bank of Canada’s deputy governor made their first speech, and this Canadian travel company announced job cuts. Finally, a Toronto driver for Uber is in court this week, facing allegations that he inappropriately received (a staggering sum of) COVID-19 aid money.
Do you remember these stories? Take our quiz below to test your recall for the week ending Oct. 5.
d. US$2.3-billion, 5 years. The newly opened Sphere (or: The Sphere at the Venetian Resort) is a project of the Madison Square Garden Company. It’s estimated that the 18,600-seat venue went over its initial $2-billion budget.
a. Seven. The 31-year-old former billionaire has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. The trial is expected to last six weeks.
a. Companies raising their prices. “If you continue to expect your suppliers and competitors to make frequent price changes, you might be more prone to do the same yourself, creating a feedback loop,” deputy governor Nicolas Vincent said.
c. Hopper. The cuts were primarily to “experimental” products and services Hopper hadn’t launched yet, the company’s CEO, Fred Lalonde, said, and that none of its offerings in the market would be affected.
d. 7.1 per cent. Greater Toronto home sales slid 7.1 per cent last month compared with September, 2022. That’s a 12.1-per-cent month-over-month decline from August, according to TREB’s latest report.
a. $1.1-million. The average home price reached $1,119,428. That’s a 3-per-cent increase from last September.
b. $350,000. In its first “nationally representative” estimate of the total cost of raising a kid, Statistics Canada said Canadians can expect to spend about $1,745 a month to raise a child from birth to the age of 17.
c. Alberta. According to Statistics Canada’s recent midyear update of population and demographics, the Wild Rose province expanded by 4 per cent – that includes 106,000 Canadians who moved to Alberta from other provinces. (Net in-migration was 56,000, as nearly 50,000 people also left the province for other provinces in that period.)
d. $4.5-million. Rabih George Barake’s fraud case is one of the few to reach Canadian courts over federal COVID programs for business.
a. Éric Provost. Montreal-based Laurentian named Éric Provost as CEO on Monday.
Jessie Willms