152 Money and Business Trivia Questions and Answers
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Easy Money and Business Trivia Questions
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What does APR stand for in consumer finance?
Annual percentage rate
APR expresses the yearly cost of borrowing as a percentage. It is intended to make competing loans and credit products easier to compare, although exact fee rules can vary by jurisdiction.
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What does ATM stand for?
Automated teller machine
The machine is named after the human bank teller whose job of handing out cash it took over.
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What is the official currency of Thailand?
baht
The name originally referred to a unit of weight used for weighing silver, and one baht still divides into 100 satang. Thailand let the currency float in 1997 after its peg to the US dollar collapsed, a move that touched off the wider Asian financial crisis.
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What happens in a bank run?
Many depositors withdraw at once
A bank run occurs when many depositors try to withdraw their funds at the same time, often because they fear the bank may fail.
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What kind of financial instrument is a bond?
Debt
A bond is a debt instrument in which an investor lends money to an issuer, typically receiving interest payments and repayment of the principal at maturity. Bonds can be issued by governments, municipalities, and companies.
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What does business revenue usually represent?
Money from sales
Revenue is income generated from a business's ordinary activities, such as selling goods or services.
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Which financial statement shows cash actually entering and leaving a business, rather than profit earned?
Cash flow statement
It splits transactions into three buckets, operating, investing and financing, so a reader can see whether cash from day-to-day sales alone is enough to keep the business running. Accrual accounting can log a sale as profit the moment it is invoiced, long before the customer actually pays.
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What is a checking account commonly used for?
Everyday payments
Checking accounts are commonly used for frequent everyday transactions and payments, while the other choices describe savings or investment purposes.
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What does CEO stand for?
Chief executive officer
CEO is the abbreviation for chief executive officer, the senior executive responsible for leading an organization.
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Numismatics is the study and collecting of what?
Coins and paper money
Numismatics covers coins, banknotes, tokens and medals, how they were struck and what they reveal about the states that issued them. The word comes from the Greek nomisma, meaning current coin.
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A savings balance has already earned interest. With compound interest, the next interest payment is worked out on what?
The principal plus the interest already earned
Compound interest is paid on the original principal plus every payment of interest already added to the balance, so the amount earning interest keeps growing and the balance rises faster and faster. Simple interest is paid on the original principal alone, and never on the interest.
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What is the amount currently owed on a credit card called?
Balance
A credit card balance is the total amount you currently owe the card issuer. It decreases when you make payments and increases when you make purchases or incur charges.
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Which credit-card amount keeps the account current but still leaves interest running?
Minimum payment
The minimum payment is the smallest amount you must pay by the bill’s due date. Paying only this amount can make repayment take longer and may increase the interest you pay.
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What does a consumer credit report primarily contain?
Borrowing and repayment history
In the United States, three bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, compile these reports from data that lenders submit each month, and most negative entries drop off after seven years under federal law. The credit score lenders use to make decisions is calculated separately, from the data the report holds.
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When used for a purchase, what does a debit card usually access?
Existing account money
A debit card generally draws money from the linked deposit account.
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What is a company's payout of profits to its shareholders called?
A dividend
A dividend is a slice of a company's profits handed to shareholders, usually in cash and often every quarter. Profit that is not paid out is kept in the business and reinvested, which is why fast-growing companies frequently pay no dividend at all.
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What is the official currency of Australia?
dollar
Australia's official currency is the dollar.
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What is the official currency of Canada?
dollar
Canada's official currency is the dollar.
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What is the official currency of New Zealand?
Dollar
New Zealand switched from pounds, shillings and pence to the decimal New Zealand dollar in 1967. Its one-dollar coin features a kiwi bird, the same nickname currency traders use for the money itself.
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The clothing brand Superdry, whose garments are covered in Japanese lettering, was founded in which country?
England
Julian Dunkerton and James Holder launched Superdry in Cheltenham in 2003 after a trip to Tokyo. The Japanese wording on the clothes was lifted from a beer label and reads as broken Japanese to native speakers.
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What is an entrepreneur?
A business founder
An entrepreneur is someone who starts and builds a business, usually taking on the financial risk involved. Entrepreneurs often develop new products, services, or ways of doing business.
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What is the official currency of Germany?
euro
Germany's official currency is the euro.
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What does FDIC stand for in US banking?
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The FDIC insures eligible deposits at participating US banks up to specified limits. It was created during the banking reforms of the 1930s.
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What flower was at the centre of the famous 17th-century Dutch speculative craze?
Tulips
Tulips were at the centre of the famous Dutch tulip mania, a speculative frenzy in the 1630s when rare bulbs were traded at extraordinarily high prices before the market collapsed in 1637.
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Which company assembles electronics, including iPhones, for major brands?
Foxconn
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, manufactures and assembles electronics for major brands.
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What is the official currency of Switzerland?
franc
Switzerland's official currency is the franc.
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Michelin, the tyre maker whose guide awards restaurants their stars, was founded in which country?
France
Andre and Edouard Michelin began making tyres at Clermont-Ferrand in 1889 and published the first Michelin guide in 1900, a free handbook for motorists listing garages, hotels and places to eat.
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Under a typical franchise agreement, what is the franchisee paying the franchisor for?
The right to trade under its brand and run its business system
A franchisee owns and funds the outlet but pays an upfront fee and ongoing royalties for the franchisor's name, recipes, suppliers and operating manual. The franchisor spreads its brand without paying for each new location, and the franchisee opens under a name customers already trust.
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The discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl both started in which country?
Germany
Karl and Theo Albrecht built up their mother's shop in Essen and in 1962 named the chain Aldi, short for Albrecht Diskont. Lidl grew out of a family wholesale firm in Heilbronn and opened its first store in 1973.
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What does GDP stand for?
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product is the total value of goods and services produced within a country over a period, usually a year.
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Who founded the Dearborn automaker behind the Model T?
Henry Ford
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903.
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What does Inc. stand for after a company's name?
Incorporated
Incorporated means the business has been formed into a corporation, a legal entity separate from the people who own it.
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What is the amount a policyholder pays before insurance contributes called?
Deductible
A deductible is the amount a policyholder pays out of pocket before insurance begins contributing to a covered claim. Choosing a higher deductible can often lower the policy’s premium because the policyholder takes on more of the initial cost.
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In accounting, which inventory category covers stock sitting in the warehouse waiting for a customer order?
Finished goods
Manufacturers split inventory into raw materials, work in process and finished goods. Only finished goods can be shipped as they are, so that figure shows how much a company could sell today.
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Which document asks a customer to pay for goods or services already supplied?
An invoice
A quote offers a price, a purchase order is the buyer committing to it, an invoice asks for the money once the work is done, and a receipt confirms the money arrived.
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What does IPO stand for?
Initial public offering
An IPO is a company's first sale of shares to public investors on a stock exchange. It can raise capital and create a public market for the shares.
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Where does the name adidas come from?
Its founder's nickname and surname
Adolf Dassler, known as Adi, registered adidas in 1949, joining his nickname to the first letters of his surname. He made his shoes in Herzogenaurach in Bavaria.
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Who founded Amazon as an online bookseller?
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookstore in 1994.
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What is the official currency of Sweden?
Krona
Sweden uses the krona, plural kronor. It joined the European Union in 1995 but voted against adopting the euro in a 2003 referendum and has kept its own currency since.
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What is the official currency of Norway?
Krone
Norway uses the krone, plural kroner, issued by Norges Bank. Norwegians have voted against joining the European Union twice, in 1972 and 1994, and the krone has never been replaced.
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What does LLC stand for, in the name of a type of company?
Limited liability company
A limited liability company protects its owners' personal assets from the company's debts, while being taxed more simply than a corporation.
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What is the official currency of Turkey?
lira
Turkey's official currency is the lira.
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What do borrowers commonly pay a lender for using its money?
Interest
Interest is the cost borrowers pay for using a lender’s money, usually calculated as a percentage of the amount borrowed. On many loans, the interest charged decreases over time as the outstanding balance is paid down.
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Who co-founded Facebook and later served as its CEO?
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in 2004 and became its CEO.
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What defines a monopoly in economics?
A single seller
A monopoly is defined by having a single seller in the market, consistent with the FTC’s explanation.
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Which sportswear brand is named after the Greek goddess of victory?
Nike
Nike was the winged goddess of victory. The company took her name in 1971, having traded until then as Blue Ribbon Sports.
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What is the official currency of the United Kingdom?
British pound sterling
The official currency of the United Kingdom is the British pound sterling, symbolized by £. One pound is divided into 100 pence.
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What does overdrawing a bank account mean?
Spending more than the balance
Overdrawing a bank account means spending more money than the account balance, causing the balance to go below zero. Depending on the bank’s policies, the transaction may be covered and an overdraft fee may apply.
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How does the United States distinguish each paper bill it prints?
A unique serial number
Serial numbers identify individual notes and help track production and circulation. They also support investigations into counterfeiting.
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Who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates?
Paul Allen
Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975.
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On a payslip, what is the term for the earnings left after tax and all other deductions?
Net pay
Gross pay is everything you earned before anything was removed. Net pay is what actually lands in your bank account once income tax, social security or national insurance, pension contributions and any other deductions have been taken out, which is why it is often called take-home pay.
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What is the official currency of Mexico?
peso
Mexico's official currency is the peso.
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What does the principal of a loan mean?
Amount borrowed
The principal is the original amount of money borrowed, before interest and fees. As you make payments, part of each payment typically reduces the remaining principal, while another part covers interest.
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What is the official currency of South Africa?
The rand
The name comes from the Witwatersrand, the ridge in Gauteng where the gold that built Johannesburg was mined. It replaced the South African pound in 1961, when the currency was decimalized into 100 cents rather than shillings and pence.
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What is the official currency of Brazil?
real
Its plural is reais, and the word means 'royal' in Portuguese, echoing a colonial-era coin of the same name. The current real was introduced in July 1994 under the Plano Real, when annual inflation was running at close to 5,000 percent.
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Which term describes a sustained, broad fall in a country's economic activity?
Recession
The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research dates these using measures like employment, income, and sales, not just the popular shorthand of two straight quarters of falling GDP.
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What is the official currency of China?
renminbi
China's official currency is the renminbi, whose main unit is the yuan.
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In the United States, what is a 401(k) plan designed for?
Saving for retirement
A 401(k) is a workplace retirement plan, named after the section of US tax law that created it. Money goes in straight from pay before tax, employers often match part of it, and it grows untaxed until it is drawn out in retirement; taking it early normally costs income tax plus a penalty.
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What does ROI stand for?
Return on investment
Return on investment expresses the gain from an investment as a proportion of what it cost.
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What is the official currency of Saudi Arabia?
riyal
Saudi Arabia's official currency is the riyal.
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What is the official currency of Russia?
ruble
Russia's official currency is the ruble.
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What is the official currency of India?
rupee
India's official currency is the rupee.
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What is the official currency of Indonesia?
rupiah
Indonesia's official currency is the rupiah.
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What is the official currency of Israel?
shekel
Israel's official currency is the shekel.
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Who co-founded Apple and later served as its CEO?
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 and later led it as CEO.
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What does one unit of corporate stock represent?
A share of ownership
Stocks represent ownership in the issuing corporation, unlike debt investments associated with interest or repayment.
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What pair forms the basic price mechanism in economics?
Supply and demand
Supply and demand interact to determine prices and the quantities bought and sold in a market. Their balance is often called the market equilibrium.
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Which of these does a trademark protect?
The name and logo a company trades under
A trademark covers the signs that tell customers who made something: names, logos, slogans, and sometimes shapes, colours or sounds. Inventions are covered by patents, creative works by copyright, and undisclosed know-how by trade secret law.
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Someone said to have 'the Midas touch' has an unusual ability to do what?
Turn any venture into a money-maker
King Midas was granted a wish that everything he touched would turn to gold, which ruined him when it reached his food and drink.
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Zara, H&M, Primark and Uniqlo are all clothing chains. Which one is Japanese?
Uniqlo
Uniqlo belongs to Fast Retailing, which grew out of a menswear shop in Yamaguchi and opened the first Uniqlo store in Hiroshima in 1984. Zara is Spanish, H&M Swedish and Primark Irish.
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What does VAT stand for?
Value added tax
Value added tax is charged at each stage of production on the value a business adds, with businesses reclaiming what they paid on inputs.
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What does a wholesaler typically sell?
Goods in bulk to businesses
A wholesaler typically sells goods in large quantities to businesses, which may resell or use them in their operations. Wholesalers often also provide storage, transportation, and product distribution services.
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What is the name for money an employer takes out of wages and pays straight to the tax authority?
Withholding
Withholding is tax paid in instalments as the wages are earned, sent by the employer rather than the worker. It is an advance against the annual bill, which is why paying too much through the year comes back as a refund.
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What is the official currency of South Korea?
won
South Korea's official currency is the won.
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What is the official currency of Japan?
yen
Japan's official currency is the yen.
Medium Money and Business Trivia Questions
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What material were U.S. cents made of in 1943?
Zinc-coated steel
To free up copper for the war effort, the U.S. Mint struck 1943 cents in zinc-coated steel. They came out silver-colored and stuck to a magnet, and the Mint went back to copper alloy the next year.
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In 2011, which company became the world's most valuable publicly traded company?
Apple
Apple passed ExxonMobil in August 2011 to take the top spot by market value, carried there by the iPhone and iPad. It was the same month Steve Jobs stepped down as chief executive.
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Which 1973 event triggered a global energy shock and long queues at American filling stations?
Arab oil embargo
Arab members of OPEC cut oil exports to nations that had backed Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and the price of crude roughly quadrupled within months. The shock led the US to set a national 55 mph speed limit and, in some states, ration fuel by odd and even license plate numbers.
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What three groups define a balance sheet's accounting equation?
Assets, liabilities, and equity
A balance sheet is organized around three groups: assets, liabilities, and equity. They follow the accounting equation: assets equal liabilities plus equity, so the two sides always balance.
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The word bank comes from the Italian banca. What does banca mean?
Bench
Medieval money changers used a banca, an Italian word meaning a bench or money-changing counter.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average's record 22.6% one-day fall in October 1987 is remembered by what name?
Black Monday
On 19 October 1987 the Dow lost 22.6% in a single session, still the largest one-day percentage fall in its history. The selling began in Hong Kong, swept west through Europe and hit New York at the open, with computer-driven programme trading blamed for accelerating the slide.
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When market interest rates rise, what usually happens to the market price of bonds already issued at fixed rates?
They fall
An older bond pays a fixed coupon, so once newly issued bonds pay more, nobody will buy the old one at full price. Its price drops until the return a new buyer earns matches the going rate, and the longer the bond has left to run, the further the price has to fall.
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Which 1944 conference laid the groundwork for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank?
Bretton Woods Conference
The Bretton Woods Conference established the framework for the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, later known as the World Bank.
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What does the Chinese company BYD primarily manufacture?
Electric vehicles and batteries
BYD primarily manufactures electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries. The company began in 1995 as a battery manufacturer before expanding into electric transportation.
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On modern US banknotes of $10 and above, what does the large numeral in the lower-right corner do when the note is tilted?
It changes colour
That numeral is printed in colour-shifting ink, introduced on the higher US denominations in the late 1990s. Tilting the note swings it from copper to green, an effect ordinary printers and photocopiers cannot reproduce.
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What is the official currency of the United Arab Emirates?
dirham
The UAE dirham has been pegged to the US dollar since 1997, at a fixed rate of about 3.67 dirhams per dollar. The word itself descends from the ancient Greek drachma, borrowed into Arabic long before the UAE existed as a country.
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What is the official currency of Vietnam?
dong
Vietnam's official currency is the dong.
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Medieval and Renaissance European banking was pioneered by the city-states of which modern-day country?
Italy
Florence, Venice, Genoa and Siena ran Europe's first true banks, financing Mediterranean trade with bills of exchange and double-entry bookkeeping. The Medici bank of Florence became the most powerful in Europe. The word bank itself comes from the Italian banco, the money-changer's bench.
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Bosch, Siemens, Miele and Electrolux all make household appliances. Which one is not German?
Electrolux
Electrolux was formed in Stockholm in 1919 and made its name selling vacuum cleaners door to door. Bosch started in Stuttgart in 1886, Siemens in Berlin in 1847 and Miele in Herzebrock in 1899.
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Which worker status usually carries minimum-wage and overtime rights?
Employee
Employees are generally entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay, while independent contractors are not. This distinction is at the centre of long-running gig-economy disputes.
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Reebok grew out of a family firm that had been hand-making running shoes since the 1890s in which country?
England
Joseph William Foster was making spiked running shoes in Bolton by 1895. His grandsons Joe and Jeff Foster launched Reebok in 1958, taking the name from the rhebok, a southern African antelope.
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Rolex has been based in Geneva since 1919. In which country was the firm founded in 1905?
England
Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis set up Wilsdorf and Davis in London in 1905, importing Swiss movements and casing them there. The Rolex name was registered in 1908 and the business moved to Geneva after the First World War.
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Which institution sets monetary policy for the euro area?
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is responsible for monetary policy in the countries that use the euro.
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In which country was the world's first paper money issued?
China
Tang-dynasty merchants left heavy strings of coins with trusted agents and carried paper deposit certificates instead. Under the Song dynasty the state took the idea over and issued the first true government-backed banknotes.
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What is the official currency of Hungary?
forint
Hungary uses the forint, introduced in 1946 to replace a currency wiped out by the worst hyperinflation ever recorded. Its name comes from Florence, where gold florins were struck in the Middle Ages.
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Bic, the ballpoint pen and lighter maker, was founded in which country?
France
Marcel Bich and Edouard Buffard set up shop at Clichy outside Paris in 1945 and launched the Bic Cristal pen in 1950. The brand is Bich's own surname with the h dropped.
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Who founded IKEA in Sweden in 1943?
Ingvar Kamprad
Ingvar Kamprad started IKEA at 17, selling pens, wallets and picture frames by mail order. The name is his initials plus Elmtaryd, the family farm, and Agunnaryd, his home village.
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The sportswear brand Fila was founded in 1911 in which country?
Italy
The Fila brothers began making textiles and underwear at Biella, in the Italian Alps, and the company turned to sportswear in the 1970s. It has been South Korean-owned since 2007.
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Which investment bank filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, intensifying the global financial crisis?
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, intensifying the global financial crisis.
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Which apparel company traces its origin to an 1853 dry-goods business in San Francisco?
Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss opened a dry-goods business in San Francisco in 1853, establishing Levi Strauss & Co.
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What kind of establishment was associated with the origins of Lloyds insurance market?
A coffee house
Edward Lloyd's coffee house became a meeting place for shipping information and marine insurance, helping establish the Lloyd's market.
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What metal makes up 75% of a modern U.S. five-cent coin?
Copper
A US nickel is three-quarters copper and only one-quarter nickel. The coin takes its nickname from the minor metal rather than the major one, because nickel was the novelty when the five-cent piece moved away from silver in 1866.
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Who co-founded Nike with Bill Bowerman?
Phil Knight
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman founded the company that became Nike.
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Which monarch has appeared on the currency of more countries than any other person?
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II's portrait was carried on the coins or banknotes of more than 30 countries during her reign, from the UK and Canada to Fiji, Belize and the eastern Caribbean. That is more than anyone else in history. Her first British coin portrait appeared in 1953, and she was shown ageing across five successive designs.
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Who co-founded the San Bernardino restaurant later expanded by Ray Kroc?
Richard and Maurice McDonald
Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the original McDonald's restaurant in 1940.
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Who founded Walmart in 1962?
Sam Walton
Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.
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On a US federal tax return, what does a deduction reduce?
The amount of income you are taxed on
A deduction comes off your income before the tax is worked out, so it saves you tax at your own rate: a $1,000 deduction is worth $220 to someone in the 22 per cent bracket. A credit is the other kind of break, and that one comes straight off the tax bill.
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Which technology accelerated the spread of 19th-century financial panics?
The telegraph
By relaying prices and rumors between cities almost instantly, the telegraph let panic-selling spread far faster than in the era of horse-and-rider news.
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Which currency did the euro replace in Europe's largest economy?
The Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark was replaced by euro notes and coins in 2002, having become a symbol of postwar German stability.
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IKEA's name is built from its founder's initials plus what?
The farm and the village where he grew up
Ingvar Kamprad took the I and K from his own name, the E from Elmtaryd, the family farm, and the A from Agunnaryd, the parish in Smaland where the farm stood.
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What is the currency of Ukraine?
The hryvnia
The hryvnia takes its name from a medieval unit of weight used in Kyivan Rus, and replaced the karbovanets in 1996.
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What is the currency of the Czech Republic?
The koruna
Koruna means 'crown', the same root as the Scandinavian krona and krone.
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What is the currency of Iceland?
The krona
Iceland kept its krona rather than joining the euro, and is not a member of the European Union.
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What is the currency of Nigeria?
The naira
The naira replaced the Nigerian pound in 1973, and its name is a contraction of 'Nigeria'.
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What is the currency of Malaysia?
The ringgit
Ringgit means 'jagged' in Malay, describing the milled edges of the Spanish silver dollars that once circulated in the region.
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What is the currency of Kenya?
The shilling
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia all use a shilling, a legacy of British East African currency.
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In which decade did the famous Dutch tulip mania and crash take place?
The 1630s
Rare tulip varieties became objects of intense speculation in the Netherlands. Prices then collapsed when buyers stopped accepting the earlier valuations.
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Ray-Ban sunglasses belong to a European group today, but the brand was created in which country?
United States
Bausch and Lomb of Rochester, New York, developed anti-glare lenses for US Army Air Corps pilots and put the Ray-Ban Aviator on sale in 1937. The Italian firm Luxottica bought the brand in 1999.
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Walt Disney founded his animation studio in 1923 with a relative who ran the money side of the business for the next four decades. Who was it?
His older brother Roy
Walt and Roy Disney set up the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Angeles in 1923. Walt drew and directed, Roy handled the finances and the deals, and the company was renamed The Walt Disney Company only after both had died.
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What does a mutual fund's NAV tell you?
What one share of the fund is worth
Net asset value per share is the fund's assets minus its liabilities, divided by the number of shares, which gives the value of a single share.
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Which organization began operating in 1995, replacing GATT's institutional role?
World Trade Organization
GATT had operated as a provisional treaty since 1947 with no formal enforcement power. The WTO gained a standing dispute-settlement system that can authorize trade sanctions against members who break the rules, and it is headquartered in Geneva.
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What is the official currency of Poland?
zloty
Poland's official currency is the zloty.
Hard Money and Business Trivia Questions
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Who bought John Pemberton's syrup formula and built The Coca-Cola Company?
Asa Griggs Candler
Asa Griggs Candler, an Atlanta pharmacist, gathered up the rights to Pemberton's formula for a few thousand dollars and incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in 1892. He built the business on advertising and on free-drink coupons, turning a local soda-fountain remedy into a national brand.
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What was eBay called when Pierre Omidyar launched it in 1995?
AuctionWeb
Pierre Omidyar launched the online auction service as AuctionWeb in 1995; it later became eBay.
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Denmark, Norway and Sweden all use a currency with essentially the same name. What does it mean?
Crown
Krone in Denmark and Norway, krona in Sweden. All three date from the Scandinavian Monetary Union of 1873.
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Which financial crisis prompted Congress to establish the Federal Reserve System?
The Panic of 1907
In the Panic of 1907 the runs on New York banks were halted only because J. P. Morgan locked bankers in his library and organized a private rescue. A country that had to depend on one elderly financier needed a lender of last resort, and the Federal Reserve Act followed in 1913.
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In 1954, which country became the first to adopt a modern value-added tax?
France
France introduced the first modern value-added tax in 1954, developed by the tax official Maurice Laure; most other countries adopted VAT decades later.
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Which U.S. law separated commercial banking from investment banking?
Glass-Steagall Act
The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 separated commercial banking from investment banking in the United States.
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Starbucks was founded in Seattle in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and which third partner?
Gordon Bowker
An English teacher, a history teacher and a writer opened the first Starbucks at Pike Place Market in 1971, selling roasted beans and equipment rather than drinks. Gordon Bowker was the writer. Howard Schultz joined a decade later and bought the company in 1987.
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Which country's currency, the quetzal, is named after a bird?
Guatemala
The resplendent quetzal is Guatemala's national bird. Its tail feathers were used as currency by the Maya, which is where the name comes from.
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Which organization was created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919?
International Labour Organization
The Treaty of Versailles established the International Labour Organization in 1919.
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Which 19th-century organization is known as the First International?
International Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1864, is commonly called the First International.
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Who founded the carmaker whose first passenger car was the 1936 Model AA?
Kiichiro Toyoda
Kiichiro Toyoda started building cars inside his family's loom-making business, and after the Model AA sedan appeared in 1936 he spun the car side off as Toyota Motor Co. in 1937.
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Who published the first known printed exposition of double-entry bookkeeping in 1494?
Luca Pacioli
Luca Pacioli included the first published exposition of double-entry bookkeeping in his 1494 work Summa de arithmetica.
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Which ancient kingdom is associated with the earliest known standardized coinage?
Lydia
The ancient kingdom of Lydia, in western Anatolia, is associated with the earliest known standardized coinage.
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In which decade was the magnetic stripe first developed for payment cards?
The 1960s
The magnetic stripe was worked out at IBM in the early 1960s, when engineer Forrest Parry fixed a length of magnetic tape to a plastic card. His wife's suggestion of ironing it on solved the sticking problem. The format was standardised at the end of the decade, and banks rolled stripe cards out to customers through the 1970s.
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Who co-founded Tesla with Marc Tarpenning?
Martin Eberhard
Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla Motors in 2003, with Eberhard as its first chief executive. Elon Musk arrived the following year by leading the company's first funding round, and a later settlement gave him the right to be called a co-founder as well.
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Who founded LEGO in Billund in 1932?
Ole Kirk Christiansen
Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter in the Danish village of Billund whose workshop turned to wooden toys during the depression of the early 1930s. He coined the name LEGO in 1934 from the Danish leg godt, meaning play well. The interlocking plastic brick in its modern form came much later, patented by the company in 1958.
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What did a letter of marque authorize a privateer to do?
Seize enemy ships for the state
A letter of marque licensed a private ship to attack and capture enemy vessels. Privateers therefore operated as state-sanctioned raiders rather than ordinary pirates.
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Which company was created in 1948 after Rudolf Dassler left the business he had run with his brother Adolf?
Puma
Adolf Dassler's side of the split became Adidas, a name drawn from 'Adi Dassler.' The rivalry divided their German hometown, Herzogenaurach, for decades, and locals nicknamed it 'the town of bent necks' for the habit of checking which brand of shoe a stranger wore.
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Botswana's currency, the pula, takes its name from a word meaning what?
Rain
Rain is precious in a country largely covered by the Kalahari, and pula is also used as a greeting and a toast.
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Which bank, founded in 1695, is the oldest still operating in Scotland?
Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland was created by an Act of the Scots Parliament in 1695, making it the first bank set up in Scotland. Its long-standing rival, the Royal Bank of Scotland, came 32 years later in 1727.
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Which 1930 U.S. law sharply raised import tariffs during the early Great Depression?
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised U.S. tariffs on many imported goods in 1930.
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What is the currency of Ethiopia?
The birr
Birr means 'silver' in Amharic. Ethiopia also runs its own calendar, which is seven to eight years behind the Gregorian one.
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What is the currency of Ghana?
The cedi
Cedi comes from the Akan word for cowrie shell, which served as money along the West African coast for centuries.
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Which currency did the euro replace in Greece?
The drachma
The drachma is one of the oldest currency names in the world, used in ancient Greece more than two thousand years before its modern revival.
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What is the currency of Peru?
The sol
Sol means 'sun', a reference to Inti, the Inca sun god.
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Which New Deal-era agency helped popularize the 30-year mortgage in the US?
The Federal Housing Administration
The FHA, created in 1934, federally insured mortgage lenders; by the 1950s most new U.S. mortgages were 30-year fixed-rate loans.
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Which U.S. Treasury security adjusts its principal value in line with inflation?
Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities
Because the principal moves with the Consumer Price Index, holders receive more interest in dollar terms as prices rise, and the Treasury guarantees repayment of at least the original face value at maturity even if prices fall.
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What was Sony called before it adopted the Sony name in 1958?
Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo
Sony was founded as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo and changed its corporate name to Sony Corporation in 1958.
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What does the Federal Reserve buy or sell in an open-market operation?
U.S. government securities
The Federal Reserve uses open-market operations to buy or sell U.S. government securities and influence banking-system reserves.
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A US retirement account whose qualified withdrawals come out tax-free is named after which senator?
William Roth
The Roth IRA, created by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, is named after its chief sponsor, Senator William V. Roth Jr. of Delaware.
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