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This week: Trump has threatened (once again) to hit another Canadian product with tariffs. Meanwhile, Australia has just become the first country to enact a unique bit of policy, which could serve as the framework for other nations to follow suit. What did they do? Take our quiz and find out.

1Which tech giant announced this week that it intends to invest $7.5-billion in Canada over the next two years?

a. Anthropic

b. Alphabet

c. Meta

d. Microsoft

d. Microsoft says it will spend billions of dollars in Canada over the next two years as part of a data-centre expansion. It is also vowing to keep data within Canadian borders and to protect Canada’s “digital sovereignty.” What’s making the company so agreeable all of a sudden? It sounds as if Microsoft is worried about a potential backlash against U.S. tech giants. Imagine that.

2Australia just became the first country in the world to do what?

a. Hit the wealthy with a 2-per-cent tax on their net worth

b. Kick kids off social media

c. Ban cellphones from schools

d. Bar the use of “they/them” pronouns in business correspondence

b. Kick kids off social media. Australia has become the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access to platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook. The backlash against the tech giants may gain momentum if other countries decide to follow Australia’s example.

3Which of these commodities hit a record high this week?

a. Gold

b. Silver

c. Copper

d. Coffee

b. Silver prices have more than doubled this year, bursting through US$60 an ounce for the first time. Rising industrial demand and falling inventories have helped the metal’s rise. So, too, has the recent decision by U.S. authorities to deem silver a critical mineral. The biggest factor, though, may simply be imitation. Investors have seen gold go on a historic tear and figure silver could do the same.

4Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha and one of the most successful investors in history, is preparing to hand over the reins of his sprawling Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate to his trusted lieutenant, Greg Abel, on Jan. 1. Where is Mr. Abel from?

a. Edmonton

b. Omaha

c. Halifax

d. Vancouver

5Which Canadian product did U.S. President Donald Trump just threaten to hit with “very severe” tariffs?

a. Maple syrup

b. Eggs

c. Fertilizer

d. Copper

c. Fertilizer. This is getting a bit repetitive, isn’t it? Mr. Trump is now threatening tariffs on imports of fertilizer from Canada. His goal is to use the tariff money to help defray the cost of a multibillion-dollar funding package for U.S. farmers, who have been battered by months of trade-war uncertainty. How increasing the price of fertilizer will help these farmers is difficult to understand, but Mr. Trump appears undeterred.

6Canada’s provinces face budgetary pressures as health care costs mount. One frequently cited problem is a lack of doctors. Since 1976, Canada’s population has grown by about 75 per cent. Over the same period, the number of physicians has increased by how much?

a. 200 per cent

b. 100 per cent

c. 75 per cent

d. 50 per cent

a. 200 per cent. Despite what most people think, the number of doctors in Canada has grown faster than the population as a whole. So why the apparent doctor shortage? Much of it has to do with the growing medical needs of an aging population. This surge in health care demand is now a major reason why most provinces run deficits. If provinces still had the demographics they did when boomers were young, all but British Columbia would be posting sizable surpluses today – without changing a single tax rate or spending line.

7The pandemic changed everything, Part 1: Canadians have always had their gripes with the Canada Revenue Agency, but how do the number of taxpayer objections to CRA decisions now compare with the number of objections before the pandemic?

a. They are about half

b. They are about 50 per cent higher

c. They are about double

d. They are about triple

c. They are about double. The number of objections submitted by taxpayers to the Canada Revenue Agency is now nearly double what it was immediately before the pandemic. Data provided to The Globe and Mail by the CRA show that the number of taxpayer objections grew from about 68,000 in 2018-19 to around 128,000 in 2024-25.

8The pandemic changed everything, Part 2: Credit card data from Royal Bank of Canada reveal some interesting changes in Canadians’ spending over the past few years. What have we doubled our credit-card spending on since 2018?

a. Entertainment

b. Groceries

c. Cars

d. Physical fitness

a. Entertainment. If the economy is slowing, it’s difficult to see it in consumers’ spending habits. Royal Bank of Canada cardholders spent 204 per cent more on arts and entertainment in October, 2025, than they did in the prepandemic days of early 2018, according to transaction data reported by the bank.

9Netflix appeared to have struck a deal to buy Hollywood powerhouse Warner Bros. Discovery. Then another bidder stormed onto the scene. Who is this potential new buyer?

a. News Corp.

b. Alphabet

c. Apple

d. Paramount

d. Paramount has launched a hostile bid worth US$108.4-billion for Warner Bros. Talk about drama: It’s Paramount’s last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix and create a media powerhouse that would challenge the dominance of the streaming giant. You know, someone should really make a movie about this.

10Absolutely nobody was surprised when the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point this week. What was more of a shocker was the degree of dissent in an organization that usually avoids open differences of opinion. How many of the dozen voters on the Fed’s policy-setting committee voted against the interest-rate cut?

a. Five

b. Four

c. Three

d. Two

c. Three Fed officials dissented from the move, the most dissents in six years and a sign of deep divisions on a committee that traditionally works by consensus. Two officials voted to keep the Fed’s rate unchanged, while one voted for an even deeper cut.

11Gosh, remember when companies used to rush to list themselves on the stock market? Not any more. Private companies are taking their sweet time before going public. But that could start to change next year. Which of these gigantic private companies are planning initial public offerings in 2026?

a. SpaceX

b. OpenAI

c. Anthropic

d. All of the above

d. All of the above. Investment bankers rejoice! Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise more than US$25-billion through an initial public offering in 2026 that would value the entire company at more than US$1-trillion, according to Reuters. ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its rival Anthropic are also reportedly in talks to go public next year in what could also be massive deals.

12A lot of high hopes are built into today’s stock market and investors have been quick to punish companies that fall short. Which tech giant slumped this week despite rising sales and earnings?

a. Microsoft

b. Oracle

c. Apple

d. Amazon

b. Oracle shares slumped nearly 11 per cent in premarket trading on Thursday after its quarterly earnings report disappointed analysts. Downbeat forecasts and higher spending on capital expenditures fanned worries that the company’s massive AI investments are taking longer than expected to pay off.

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