209 Fun Facts About Finance

Roughly how many shares traded on 'Black Tuesday', 29 October 1929, the worst day of the crash?

About 16.4 million shares changed hands on Black Tuesday, 29 October 1929, beating the record of 12.9 million set on Black Thursday five days earlier.

In which year did the Dow Jones Industrial Average finally regain its 1929 pre-crash peak?

The Dow first closed above its 3 September 1929 peak of 381.17 on 23 November 1954, more than 25 years after the crash.

Which flower was at the centre of what is generally called the first recorded speculative bubble?

The Dutch mania peaked in the winter of 1636-37, when a single rare bulb could fetch more than ten times a skilled artisan's annual income.

In which year did the Dutch flower-bulb bubble burst?

Prices collapsed in February 1637; the Semper Augustus bulb had changed hands for about 10,000 guilders, roughly the price of a grand Amsterdam canal house.

On Black Monday, 19 October 1987, the Dow Jones fell 508 points, roughly what percentage in a single day?

The Dow lost 508 points, or 22.6%, on 19 October 1987, the largest one-day percentage drop in the index's history to that point, amid crashes in futures and options markets.

Which investment bank's bankruptcy on 15 September 2008 became the defining moment of the financial crisis?

Lehman Brothers filed the largest bankruptcy in US history on 15 September 2008, with over $600 billion in assets, after 158 years in business.

The 158-year-old firm that collapsed in September 2008 began as a dry-goods store in which US state?

Bavarian immigrant Henry Lehman opened the shop in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1844; his brothers followed and the firm became Lehman Brothers in 1850.

Which US investment bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase in a Fed-backed 'fire sale' in March 2008?

Bear Stearns, then the fifth-largest US investment bank, went to JPMorgan Chase for an initial $2 a share, later raised to $10, with the Fed backing $29 billion of its assets.

How large was the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that Congress authorised in October 2008?

Congress authorised $700 billion for TARP in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 3 October 2008; the Dodd-Frank Act later cut the authority to $475 billion.

Which British company's 1720 'Bubble' gave its name to a famous Act of Parliament?

The South Sea Company had itself lobbied for the Bubble Act of June 1720, which banned rival joint-stock companies lacking a royal charter; its shares collapsed later that year.

In the Weimar Republic hyperinflation of 1923, roughly how many marks did one US dollar buy by November?

By 20 November 1923 the official rate was 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar; a loaf of bread in Berlin had gone from about 160 marks at the end of 1922 to 200 billion marks.

What temporary currency, backed by mortgage bonds, ended Germany's 1923 hyperinflation?

The Rentenmark, issued from November 1923 and backed by mortgages on German land and industry, stopped the inflation; the Reichsmark replaced it in August 1924.

The January 2021 GameStop short squeeze was driven mainly by which online community?

Retail traders on Reddit's r/wallstreetbets piled into GameStop, driving the shares from under $20 to an intraday high near $483 on 28 January 2021, the day Robinhood halted buying.

The Enron scandal dissolved which accounting firm, then among the world's five largest?

Arthur Andersen, Enron's auditor, was convicted of obstruction in 2002 for shredding documents and surrendered its licences, shrinking from 85,000 staff to a shell; the conviction was overturned in 2005.

Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the largest known in history, was worth an estimated how much?

Madoff's fictitious account statements showed about $65 billion in client holdings when he was arrested on 11 December 2008; actual cash losses were roughly $17-20 billion.

Charles Ponzi's 1920 scheme claimed to profit from arbitrage in what?

Ponzi promised 50% in 45 days from buying international postal reply coupons cheaply abroad and redeeming them for US stamps; he never actually traded them at scale.

What prison sentence did Bernie Madoff receive in June 2009?

Judge Denny Chin gave Madoff the maximum 150 years on 29 June 2009; he died in federal prison in April 2021, aged 82.

Warren Buffett was born and built Berkshire Hathaway in which US city?

Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 30 August 1930; Berkshire Hathaway's headquarters in Omaha host an annual meeting nicknamed the 'Woodstock for Capitalists'.

Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's holding company, was originally a manufacturer of what?

Buffett started buying the shares in 1962 at $7.50 apiece; the class A stock passed $700,000 in 2024 because the board refuses to split it.

Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge in 2010 with which couple?

Buffett launched the Giving Pledge with Bill and Melinda Gates in June 2010, asking billionaires to give away most of their wealth; the first 40 signatories were announced that August.

Michael Burry, the investor played by Christian Bale in 'The Big Short', trained professionally as what before starting his hedge fund?

A medical doctor: he earned an MD from Vanderbilt in 1997 before starting the hedge fund Scion Capital with family loans and an inheritance.

Jack Bogle, who launched the first public index fund, founded which firm in 1974?

Bogle founded Vanguard in 1974 and launched its First Index Investment Trust in 1976; critics dubbed the passive S&P 500 fund 'Bogle's Folly' and called it un-American.

Isaac Newton spent the last three decades of his life running which British institution?

Newton was Warden of the Royal Mint from 1696 and its Master from 1699 until his death in 1727; he estimated a fifth of coins handed in during the Great Recoinage were counterfeit.

The US Federal Reserve System was created by an Act signed in which year?

Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on 23 December 1913, after the Panic of 1907 had exposed the lack of a lender of last resort.

How many regional Federal Reserve Banks are there in the United States?

There are twelve Federal Reserve Banks, from Boston (district 1) to San Francisco (district 12), each serving a district drawn under the 1913 Act.

Which country has the world's oldest central bank, founded in 1668?

Sweden's Riksbank, established in 1668, is the world's oldest central bank; the Bank of England followed in 1694 and stayed privately owned until nationalisation in 1946.

The Bank of England's nickname 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street' comes from what?

The name comes from James Gillray's 1797 satirical cartoon showing Pitt the Younger wooing an old lady dressed in banknotes; the bank has stood on Threadneedle Street since 1734.

The Medici Bank, the largest and most respected bank in 15th-century Europe, was based in which city?

Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici founded the bank in Florence in 1397; the family's wealth became political control of the Florentine Republic under Cosimo the Elder.

The FDIC, which insures US bank deposits, was created by legislation passed in which year?

The Banking Act of 1933, signed by Franklin Roosevelt on 16 June 1933, created the FDIC after thousands of bank failures; deposit insurance began on 1 January 1934.

Dodd-Frank (2010) made permanent what FDIC insurance cap per ownership category?

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act raised the cap from $100,000 to $250,000 in October 2008 as a temporary measure; Dodd-Frank made the $250,000 limit permanent in July 2010.

In which US state did 44 Allied nations agree the post-war monetary system in 1944?

The July 1944 conference met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and created the IMF and the institution that became the World Bank.

The New York Stock Exchange traces its origins to an agreement signed by 24 brokers in 1792 under what?

The Buttonwood Agreement set a floor commission rate and bound the signers to deal with one another first.

How many companies make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

The Dow has had 30 components since October 1928, when it grew from 20; it began in 1896 with 12 industrial stocks and is price-weighted rather than weighted by company size.

At what value did the Dow Jones Industrial Average debut on 26 May 1896?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 40.94 on 26 May 1896, the average price of 12 industrial stocks including American Cotton Oil and General Electric.

In which year did Standard & Poor's expand its index to 500 companies?

Standard & Poor's expanded its composite to 500 stocks on 4 March 1957, computing it hourly by computer; a 233-company weekly index had existed since 1923.

Which stock market began operations on 8 February 1971 as the world's first fully electronic exchange?

Nasdaq opened on 8 February 1971 as an automated quotation system for over-the-counter stocks; trades were done by telephone for years, with electronic execution arriving in 1984.

The world's oldest 'modern' securities market was created in 1602 to trade shares of which company?

Amsterdam's exchange grew up as a secondary market for shares of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), chartered in 1602; Joseph de la Vega's 1688 'Confusion of Confusions' described its trading.

The Nikkei 225, a price-weighted index like the Dow, tracks companies listed on the stock exchange of which Japanese city?

Tokyo's exchange is home to the Nikkei 225, whose 225 components are reviewed twice a year.

Which UK stock index, informally called the 'Footsie', started life on 3 January 1984?

The FTSE 100 launched on 3 January 1984 at a base of 1,000 points, replacing the FT 30 as the main gauge of the London market; 'Footsie' is a pun on its initials.

'Bull' and 'bear' market terms originated in the early 18th century in which London location?

The terms grew up among the stockjobbers of Exchange Alley, where short sellers were called 'bear-skin jobbers' for selling the bear's skin before catching the bear; 'bear' was in print by 1709.

In December of which year did its sculptor illegally drop the Charging Bull outside the NYSE?

Arturo Di Modica dropped the 7,100-pound bronze in front of the NYSE on 15 December 1989; police removed it and it was reinstalled at Bowling Green within days.

Before it was Wall Street, the Dutch of New Amsterdam called the street 'Het Cingel', meaning what?

'Cingel' (modern Dutch 'singel') means belt or girdle, from the Latin cingulum; Amsterdam's own Singel was the encircling outer canal and wall of the old city.

On 15 August 1971, in the 'Nixon shock', President Richard Nixon ended the dollar's direct convertibility into what?

Gold had backed the dollar at a fixed $35 an ounce under Bretton Woods; cancelling convertibility effectively made the dollar a fiat currency.

In which year did Newton's mispricing of silver against gold put Britain onto a de facto gold standard?

Silver coins went out of circulation as a result, and the world's leading commercial power stayed on gold for two centuries.

Euro coins and banknotes first entered physical circulation on 1 January of which year?

The euro had already existed as an accounting currency since 1999, replacing the ECU one-for-one.

The largest US banknote ever printed, the $100,000 bill, carried the portrait of which president?

Woodrow Wilson's portrait appears on the 1934 $100,000 gold certificate, used only for transfers between Federal Reserve banks; it never circulated and is illegal for private citizens to hold.

US 'greenbacks' are named after Demand Notes created by which president to fund the Civil War?

The 1861 Demand Notes, authorised under Abraham Lincoln to pay for the Civil War, were printed with green backs, and the nickname stuck to US paper money.

The US cent design with a president's profile on the front was introduced in which year?

The Lincoln cent debuted in 1909 for the centennial of Lincoln's birth, the first circulating US coin to show a real person; the Memorial reverse ran from 1959 to 2008.

According to Herodotus, which ancient people were the first to use gold and silver coins?

Herodotus wrote that the Lydians were the first to strike gold and silver coins; their earliest coins were electrum, a natural gold-silver alloy from Anatolia's Pactolus river.

Paper money was first used in China during which dynasty?

The Song dynasty issued the first true paper money, jiaozi, in Sichuan in the early 11th century, building on Tang-era 'flying cash' credit notes; Marco Polo later devoted a chapter to it.

The word 'salary' derives from the Latin 'salarium', which is itself connected to which everyday commodity?

Salt is the root: salarium comes from sal, and one theory is that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in it, or paid to guard the Via Salaria, the salt road into Rome.

The word 'mortgage' comes from a Law French term meaning what?

'Mortgage' is Law French 'mort gage', a 'death pledge': the pledge dies either when the debt is repaid or when the property is taken on default.

The earliest known pig-shaped money boxes, dating to the 12th century, were made on which island?

Terracotta boar-shaped money boxes (cèlèngan) have been dug up in large numbers on Java around Trowulan, the site thought to be the capital of the Majapahit Empire.

The Bitcoin white paper was posted to a cryptography mailing list on 31 October of which year?

Satoshi Nakamoto posted 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' to the Cryptography Mailing List on 31 October 2008; the network's genesis block followed on 3 January 2009.

How many bitcoins did Laszlo Hanyecz pay for two pizzas in the first commercial bitcoin deal?

Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoins for two Papa John's pizzas on 22 May 2010, a date celebrated as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

The world's first cash machine was installed in June 1967 at which bank's Enfield branch?

Barclays opened the first cash machine at its Enfield branch on 27 June 1967, beating a Swedish rival by nine days; customers fed in paper vouchers marked with carbon-14 rather than plastic cards.

Which card, launched in 1950 by Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider, was the first general-purpose charge card?

Diners Club began in 1950 with about 200 cardholders and a handful of Manhattan restaurants; the whole bill had to be paid each month, and American Express followed in 1958.

Bank of America launched the BankAmericard, the first successful modern credit card, in 1958 in which city?

The 'Fresno Drop' of September 1958 mailed 60,000 Fresno residents an unsolicited card at once, because some 45% of the city's families already banked with Bank of America.

The BankAmericard licensees unified under which single brand name in 1976?

Dee Hock, Visa's first CEO, had computerised the system in 1973 to cut transaction times.

The 401(k) retirement plan takes its name from what?

Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code was enacted on 6 November 1978; benefits consultant Ted Benna set up one of the first plans at his own firm.

The Roth IRA is named after a US senator from which state?

Delaware senator William Roth sponsored the account in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997; he and Bob Packwood had first proposed it in 1989 as the 'IRA Plus'.

The 'rule of 72' is a mental shortcut for estimating what?

Divide 72 by the annual interest rate; 69.3 is more accurate for continuous compounding, but 72 divides more easily.

The most widely used US credit score, the FICO score, is produced by a company formerly known as what?

Engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac founded Fair Isaac Corporation in 1956, and the company renamed itself FICO in 2009; its base score runs from 300 to 850.

In which 1946 film does George Bailey talk depositors out of withdrawing their savings during a bank run?

In Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), James Stewart's George Bailey hands out his own honeymoon money to calm the run on the Bailey Building and Loan.

Banknotes were first issued in Europe by Stockholms Banco in which year?

Johan Palmstruch's Stockholms Banco issued Europe's first banknotes in 1661 and collapsed within a few years after over-issuing them; the Riksbank replaced it in 1668.

Which telecoms giant's 2002 collapse, then the largest US bankruptcy ever, exposed an $11 billion fraud?

WorldCom filed for bankruptcy in July 2002 after revealing about $11 billion of inflated earnings; CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in 2005.

Interest earned on both the principal and earlier accumulated interest is called what?

Compound interest adds each period's interest to the principal so later interest is earned on it too; simple interest, by contrast, never adds earlier interest to the principal.

The periodic interest payment made to a bondholder is known by what name?

The name survives from the days when paper bonds carried detachable coupons to be clipped and redeemed.

Profits a corporation keeps rather than paying out as dividends are known as what?

Retained earnings are the cumulative profits kept in the business after dividends; they sit in shareholders' equity, and a corporation is generally barred from paying dividends out of capital.

The process of a private company selling shares in an IPO is colloquially known as what?

'Going public' is the everyday term for an initial public offering, when a private company first sells shares to outside investors; in Britain the same step is often called 'floating' the company.

A stock's P/E ratio divides its price by which figure?

Earnings per share is the divisor, so a P/E of 8 means a buyer is paying eight years' worth of current earnings for the share.

What distinguishes an ETF from a traditional mutual fund?

It trades on a stock exchange, bought and sold through the day like a share; most ETFs are index funds that passively track a stock or bond index.

Market capitalisation is calculated by multiplying a company's share price by what?

Market cap is share price times the number of shares outstanding; it measures only equity, ignoring debt, so enterprise value is the fuller yardstick.

A short seller profits when the price of the borrowed asset does what?

A short seller borrows the asset, sells it, and profits if the price falls, since it must eventually be bought back more cheaply to return to the lender.

In options trading, the fixed level at which the holder may buy or sell the underlying asset is called what?

The strike price is fixed when the option is written, and the option conveys the right, but not the obligation, to trade at it.

Insider trading means trading a company's securities based on what kind of information?

Insider trading is dealing on material, non-public information; in many jurisdictions the ban extends to brokers, associates and even family members who receive tips from insiders.

Under which chapter of the US Bankruptcy Code does a business reorganise, usually staying in control, rather than liquidate?

Chapter 11 permits reorganisation, and in most cases the debtor stays in control of its business during the process.

In a pyramid scheme, participants earn money primarily by doing what?

Because recruitment must grow forever, most late joiners inevitably lose money.

Which investor popularised 'dollar cost averaging' in his 1949 book The Intelligent Investor?

Benjamin Graham described dollar cost averaging in The Intelligent Investor (1949): a fixed sum invested regularly buys more shares when prices are low and fewer when they are high.

The term 'blue chip' stock derives from which game?

The term comes from poker, where in American tradition the blue chips are the highest-value ones on the table; Dow Jones staff applied it to high-priced stocks in the 1920s.

Dow Jones folklore credits which employee with coining 'blue chip' stock in the 1920s?

Oliver Gingold, a Dow Jones employee, is said to have coined it around 1923 after watching several stocks trading at $200 or more a share go by on the ticker.

'Junk Bond King' Michael Milken ran the high-yield department of which firm?

Milken ran Drexel Burnham Lambert's high-yield desk from Beverly Hills; his pay there, $550 million in 1987 alone, topped $1 billion over four years, a US record at the time.

Which benchmark replaced US-dollar Libor when its final rates were published in June 2023?

SOFR, the Secured Overnight Financing Rate based on Treasury repo trades, became the main replacement when the last US-dollar Libor settings were published on 30 June 2023.

Quantitative easing, widely used after 2008, was first pioneered in which country?

The Bank of Japan introduced quantitative easing in March 2001, buying government bonds to flood banks with reserves; the Fed and Bank of England followed in 2008-09.

The Glass–Steagall provisions of 1933 separated commercial banks from what kind of business?

The 1933 provisions, sponsored by Senator Carter Glass and Representative Henry Steagall, barred commercial banks from investment banking such as underwriting securities; they were largely repealed in 1999.

The Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 created which new watchdog agency?

Dodd-Frank created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, proposed by Elizabeth Warren and opened in July 2011; it also set up the Financial Stability Oversight Council to watch for systemic risk.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission was created by an Act passed in which year?

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 created the SEC, with Joseph P. Kennedy as its first chairman, after the 1929 crash exposed abuses in the securities markets.

The IMF, founded at Bretton Woods, is headquartered in which city?

The IMF has been based in Washington, D.C. since it began operations in 1947, across the street from the World Bank; it lends to members facing balance-of-payments crises.

Deloitte, EY and KPMG make up the Big Four accounting firms along with which firm?

PwC, formed by the 1998 merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, completes the Big Four; the group shrank from five when Arthur Andersen collapsed in 2002.

Which hedge fund got a $3.6 billion bank bailout brokered by the New York Fed in 1998?

Long-Term Capital Management had lost $4.6 billion in under four months through extreme leverage; in September 1998 the New York Fed organised a $3.6 billion rescue by 14 banks.

John Meriwether headed bond trading at which bank before founding his 1994 hedge fund?

Meriwether built Salomon Brothers' bond arbitrage group and rose to vice chairman before leaving after the 1991 Treasury auction scandal; Nobel laureates Myron Scholes and Robert Merton joined him at LTCM.

By 1818, which London merchant bank was dubbed 'the sixth great European power'?

The other five were England, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia.

Rogue trader Nick Leeson served his prison sentence in which country?

Leeson, whose unauthorised trades sank Barings in 1995, was extradited to Singapore, sentenced to six and a half years and held in Changi Prison until his early release in 1999 after a cancer diagnosis.

Jérôme Kerviel's unauthorised trades cost which French bank about €4.9 billion in 2008?

Société Générale unwound Kerviel's €50 billion of hidden positions in January 2008 at a loss of about €4.9 billion; he was convicted of breach of trust, forgery and misusing the bank's computers.

The Black–Scholes model gives a theoretical price for what kind of financial instrument?

It shows an option has a unique price given the security's risk and expected return.

Harry Markowitz won the 1990 Nobel in economics for pioneering what?

Markowitz's modern portfolio theory, set out in his 1952 paper 'Portfolio Selection', shows how correlation and diversification shape a portfolio's risk and return; he shared the 1990 Nobel with Sharpe and Miller.

Which Wall Street firm was Bloomberg L.P.'s first customer, taking a stake in the fledgling company?

Merrill Lynch became the first customer in 1982, installing 22 terminals, and took a 30% stake for $30 million; Bloomberg bought back Merrill's remaining 20% in 2008 for $4.43 billion.

Who was the third co-founder of Dow Jones & Company alongside Charles Dow and Edward Jones?

Charles Bergstresser, who had worked with Dow and Jones at the Kiernan News Agency, joined as a silent partner when Dow Jones & Company was founded in November 1882.

The Wall Street Journal published its first issue in which year?

The Wall Street Journal first appeared on 8 July 1889, a four-page afternoon paper priced at two cents, growing out of the Customers' Afternoon Letter that Dow, Jones & Company had published since 1883.

The Panic of 1907 was triggered by a failed attempt to corner the stock of which company?

F. Augustus Heinze's failed October 1907 attempt to corner United Copper Company stock triggered runs on banks tied to the scheme, notably the Knickerbocker Trust, spreading panic across the system.

The Rothschild banking dynasty originated in which city?

Mayer Amschel Rothschild built the business in Frankfurt's Judengasse in the late 18th century; the name comes from the red shield (rot Schild) sign of the family's house there.

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. designates which city as its main office on its national charter?

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. names Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as its main office on its national bank charter, so courts treat it as a South Dakota citizen, even though the parent is headquartered in San Francisco.

Amadeo Giannini founded which institution, the forerunner of today's BofA?

Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904 to serve working-class Italian immigrants; it became Bank of America in 1930.

Lloyd's of London traces its origins to what kind of business run by Edward Lloyd c. 1689?

Edward Lloyd's coffee house on Tower Street, first recorded in 1688, was where shipowners and underwriters met; Lloyd's began in marine insurance and grew into a marketplace of syndicates rather than a single insurer.

Which company bought PayPal in 2002 for about $1.5 billion, then spun it off in 2015?

eBay bought PayPal in October 2002 for about $1.5 billion, months after PayPal's February IPO, and spun it off as an independent company in July 2015.

M-Pesa, the mobile money service launched in 2007, began in which country?

Safaricom, Kenya's largest mobile operator, launched M-Pesa with Vodafone in March 2007; within a few years most Kenyan adults were using it.

In M-Pesa, 'pesa' is the word for money in which language?

The M stands for mobile.

By early 2014, Mt. Gox was handling roughly what share of all bitcoin transactions?

The Tokyo-based exchange abruptly ceased operations amid the loss of hundreds of thousands of bitcoin.

Crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed in 2022, was headquartered in which country?

FTX moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to Nassau in the Bahamas in September 2021, though FTX Trading Ltd was incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda; Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December 2022.

As of 2021, Dogecoin was the sleeve sponsor of which English football club?

Watford FC carried the Dogecoin logo on its shirt sleeves in the 2021-22 Premier League season under a deal with main sponsor Stake.com; the joke coin had peaked above $85 billion in market value in May 2021.

Which currency is the world's oldest still in continuous use?

The pound sterling dates back to Anglo-Saxon England around the 8th century, when a pound of silver made 240 pennies, making it the oldest currency in continuous use.

The dollar sign is also known as the sign of which other currency?

The $ sign is also the peso sign, used in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and elsewhere; one theory derives it from the abbreviation 'ps' for pesos in 18th-century Spanish-American accounts.

The first United States Mint was created in 1792 in which city?

The Coinage Act of April 1792 established the Mint in Philadelphia, then the national capital; the first circulating coins, copper cents, were struck there in 1793.

Which US agency prints paper currency, as opposed to the Mint's coins?

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, part of the Treasury, prints Federal Reserve notes at plants in Washington, D.C. and Fort Worth, Texas; the Mint strikes coins.

In which year did the Treasury build the Fort Knox bullion depository?

The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, was completed in December 1936 and the first gold arrived by train in January 1937; the aim was to move gold away from coastal cities vulnerable to attack.

Who was the first woman to chair the US Federal Reserve?

Janet Yellen chaired the Fed from February 2014 to February 2018, and in January 2021 became the first woman to serve as US Treasury secretary.

Alan Greenspan chaired the Federal Reserve from 1987 until which year?

Greenspan served from August 1987 to 31 January 2006, when Ben Bernanke, nominated by George W. Bush, took over; Ronald Reagan had first appointed him.

Who holds the record for the longest tenure as Fed chair, ahead of Alan Greenspan?

William McChesney Martin chaired the Fed from April 1951 to January 1970, nearly 19 years under five presidents, a few months longer than Alan Greenspan's run.

Which institution has the exclusive right to authorise the issue of euro banknotes?

Under Article 128 of the EU treaty, the European Central Bank alone authorises euro banknote issues; member states may mint euro coins, but the ECB must approve the volume.

The Hungarian pengő, wrecked by the worst hyperinflation ever, was replaced in 1946 by what?

The forint replaced the pengő on 1 August 1946 at a rate of 400 octillion pengő to one forint; the pengő itself had replaced the korona only in 1927.

Which magazine has published the Big Mac Index since 1986?

The Economist introduced the Big Mac Index in September 1986, devised by Pam Woodall as a light-hearted guide to whether currencies are at their 'correct' level under purchasing power parity.

The Laffer curve illustrates the relationship between tax rates and what?

It argues revenue is zero at both 0% and 100% tax, so a peak lies somewhere between.

John Maynard Keynes graduated from Cambridge in 1904 with a degree in which subject?

Keynes read mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, graduating as Twelfth Wrangler in 1904; his only formal economics teaching was a short spell under Alfred Marshall after his degree.

Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was published in which year?

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations appeared on 9 March 1776, months before the American Declaration of Independence; The Theory of Moral Sentiments had come out in 1759.

Peter Lynch famously ran which Fidelity fund from 1977 to 1990?

At Fidelity Magellan Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return from 1977 to 1990, growing assets from $18 million to $14 billion, the best-performing mutual fund in the world over that span.

Which of these investing terms was coined by Peter Lynch?

Lynch coined 'ten bagger' in One Up on Wall Street (1989) for a stock that rises tenfold, borrowing 'bagger' from baseball; he also popularised 'invest in what you know'.

On Black Wednesday in 1992, the UK withdrew the pound from what?

Britain had joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1990; on 16 September 1992 the government could not hold sterling above its ERM floor despite announcing 15% interest rates, and left the mechanism that evening.

George Soros's Black Wednesday short sale of pounds sterling was worth roughly how much?

The trade made him about $1 billion and the nickname 'the man who broke the Bank of England'.

Which quantitative hedge fund did mathematician Jim Simons found?

Simons founded Renaissance Technologies in 1982 on Long Island; its Medallion Fund averaged about 66% a year before fees from 1988 to 2018, the best record of any hedge fund.

How far did the Nasdaq Composite fall from its March 2000 peak to its 2002 low?

The Nasdaq Composite dropped about 78%, from a 10 March 2000 peak of 5,048 to 1,114 on 9 October 2002, giving back every gain of the dot-com boom.

Pets.com, a famous dot-com casualty, was known for what advertising mascot?

The Pets.com sock puppet, voiced by Michael Ian Black, starred in a 2000 Super Bowl ad and flew as a balloon in the 1999 Macy's Thanksgiving parade.

Which retailer bought the Pets.com web address in 2001 after the site folded?

PetSmart acquired the Pets.com domain in 2001 after the site, which lived only from November 1998 to November 2000, was liquidated, and pointed the address at its own store.

Which savings and loan, seized in September 2008, is the largest bank failure in US history?

Washington Mutual, with $307 billion in assets, was seized by the Office of Thrift Supervision on 25 September 2008, and the FDIC sold its banking operations to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion.

Robinhood, the commission-free trading app, was founded in 2013 by Baiju Bhatt and whom?

Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt met as Stanford classmates and built trading software for hedge funds before launching Robinhood in 2013; the app opened to the public in 2015.

A SPAC, a listed shell set up to take a private firm public, is also known as what?

A SPAC is a 'blank check company': it raises cash in its own IPO with no business, then merges with a private target, which reaches the market with fewer disclosures than a conventional IPO.

Saudi Aramco's 2019 IPO, the world's largest, beat the 2014 record set by which company?

Aramco raised $25.6 billion.

Established in 1875, the oldest stock exchange in Asia is in which city?

The Bombay Stock Exchange began in 1875 as the Native Share and Stock Brokers' Association, under a banyan tree where brokers had met since the 1850s; it is Asia's oldest exchange.

Germany's DAX index tracks how many major blue-chip companies?

The DAX was expanded from 30 to 40 companies in September 2021, partly in response to the Wirecard scandal; it has been calculated since 1988.

The NYSE's Level 1 circuit breaker halts trading after a market drop of what size?

A 7% fall in the S&P 500 from the prior close triggers a 15-minute Level 1 halt before 3:25 pm; Levels 2 and 3 kick in at 13% and 20%, the last closing the market for the day.

Which venture capitalist coined the term 'unicorn' for a $1 billion startup in 2013?

Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures coined 'unicorn' in a November 2013 TechCrunch article, choosing the mythical beast to convey how rare billion-dollar startups were: she counted just 39.

Sand Hill Road, running through Palo Alto and Menlo Park, is famous for its concentration of what?

Sand Hill Road is lined with venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, which set up there in the 1970s; the road also runs through Woodside.

The 2016 Wells Fargo scandal involved employees creating millions of what?

Wells Fargo staff under sales pressure opened millions of unauthorised deposit and credit card accounts in customers' names; in September 2016 the CFPB and other regulators fined the bank a combined $185 million.

How old was Elizabeth Holmes when she founded Theranos in 2003?

Holmes, born in February 1984, dropped out of Stanford to found the company at 19 in 2003; Theranos reached a $9 billion valuation at its 2014 peak.

Jordan Belfort, the real 'Wolf of Wall Street', founded which brokerage firm?

Belfort founded Stratton Oakmont in 1989 with Danny Porush; the Long Island pump-and-dump shop was shut down in 1996 and its notoriety also inspired the film Boiler Room (2000).

Monopoly descends from The Landlord's Game, created in 1903 by whom?

Lizzie Magie, a follower of economist Henry George, designed The Landlord's Game to show how rent enriches landlords, patenting it in 1904; Charles Darrow sold a derivative to Parker Brothers in 1935.

Which of these is a marketable US Treasury security, alongside bills, notes and bonds?

Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), first auctioned in 1997, have principal that rises with the consumer price index; savings bonds are non-marketable and agency paper is not issued by the Treasury.

Which country's sovereign wealth fund is the world's largest, holding about 1.5% of listed shares?

Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, fed by oil and gas revenue since 1996, passed $1 trillion in 2017 and owns about 1.5% of all listed shares worldwide.

Which firm, founded in 1988, is by far the world's largest asset manager?

BlackRock, founded in 1988 by Larry Fink and partners as a bond and risk-management shop, became the world's largest asset manager, passing $10 trillion under management in 2021.

The Chinese yuan is divided into 10 of what unit?

Each jiao is further split into 10 fen, so a yuan holds 100 fen.

Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 as part of which programme?

Fannie Mae was created in 1938 under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, through amendments to the National Housing Act, to buy mortgages from lenders and expand the secondary mortgage market.

Which California lender collapsed in March 2023 after a run by its tech-startup depositors?

Silicon Valley Bank was closed by regulators on 10 March 2023 after depositors pulled $42 billion in a single day, the biggest US bank failure since Washington Mutual in 2008 at the time.

The US government's 2008 rescue of insurer AIG ultimately produced what result for taxpayers?

Taxpayers came out with a profit of about $22.7 billion: the Treasury and Fed committed $182.3 billion to AIG from 2008 and had recovered $205 billion by the time the last shares were sold in December 2012.

A credit default swap pays its buyer if what happens?

A credit default swap pays out when the debtor fails to pay, a 'credit event' such as default or restructuring; it works like insurance on a bond, though buyers need not own the underlying debt.

The savings and loan crisis saw roughly what fraction of US thrifts fail between 1986 and 1995?

Regulators closed 1,043 of the 3,234 thrifts operating in 1986, about a third, holding $519 billion in assets; the cleanup cost taxpayers roughly $124 billion.

American Express was started in 1850 in Buffalo, New York, as what kind of company?

Two of its founders, Henry Wells and William Fargo, went on to start Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852.

In which year did UBS complete its emergency takeover of rival Credit Suisse?

UBS announced the roughly $3.25 billion rescue on 19 March 2023 and completed it on 12 June 2023, ending a bank founded in 1856 to finance Switzerland's railways.

Charles Dow's first index, created in 1884 with eleven stocks, tracks which sector?

Transportation was the sector; Dow built the index on 3 July 1884 from eleven stocks, mostly railroads, and it is older than its better-known relative, the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The bank messaging cooperative SWIFT was founded in 1973 in which city?

SWIFT was set up in Brussels in 1973 by 239 banks from 15 countries and later moved its headquarters to nearby La Hulpe; it hosts the annual Sibos conference.

The 'Master Charge' name used by the Interbank card was coined by a lender in which city?

The 1969 brand paired that name with the overlapping circles of the Western States Bankcard Association; the MasterCard name arrived in 1979.

Which privilege, forbidden to other MPs in the chamber, may Britain's Chancellor enjoy during the Budget speech?

Drinking alcohol is otherwise banned in the Commons chamber, but tradition lets the Chancellor sip whatever they wish during the speech. Kenneth Clarke chose whisky and Geoffrey Howe a gin and tonic.

By tradition, Canada's finance minister buys or wears a new pair of what when delivering the federal budget?

Shoes are bought for budget day in Canada, yet nobody knows why: the custom did not come from Britain, and its first press mention, in 1955, was about a minister in old footwear.

The FIRE movement, inspired by the 1992 book Your Money or Your Life, pairs 'Financial Independence' with what?

Retire Early completes the name: followers save far more than the 10–15% planners usually suggest, aiming to cover living costs from investments without a traditional job.

Engel's law, from statistician Ernst Engel, says the share of income spent on what shrinks as families grow richer?

Food takes a shrinking slice of the budget even while the grocery bill itself grows, which is why poverty lines are often set by how much of a household's spending goes on eating.

Which Japanese budgeting method, published by journalist Motoko Hani in 1904, has a name meaning 'household ledger'?

Kakeibo has savers write their thoughts and observations beside each month's income and spending, because the aim is awareness of their own consumption, not just a tally.

Which US president's final four budgets all ended in surplus, covering the years 1998 through 2001?

Bill Clinton's surpluses were credited to a strong economy, tax rises on upper earners, spending restraint and capital gains revenue from a stock market boom.

Which holiday names the savings 'clubs' US banks have run for over a century so customers can spread the cost of gifts?

Christmas clubs had customers pay in a set amount each week and get the money back at the end of the year. The first, at a Pennsylvania trust company, drew 350 savers.

Which stationery item names the cash-only budgeting system where each spending category gets its own labelled stash?

Envelope budgeting makes overspending physically hard: shoppers take only the one set aside for that category, so when its cash is gone the spending stops.

In the 50/30/20 budget, which category of spending is meant to take up exactly half of a person's net income?

Needs, meaning basic necessities, get 50% of net income in this plan, while wants get 30% and the last 20% is saved. Sorting every expense into just three piles is what keeps it simple.

Which US president brought zero-based budgeting to federal agencies after first using it as governor of his home state?

Jimmy Carter hired the method's inventor, Peter Pyhrr, to manage Georgia's budget process, then took to the White House the idea that every expense must be justified afresh each period.

Which Dickens character says spending sixpence under a twenty-pound income is happiness, and sixpence over is misery?

Mr Micawber fails to live by his own sum and is locked up in a debtors' prison. Dickens modelled the character on his own father, John Dickens.

Which US state is the only one of the fifty with no legal requirement to balance its operating budget?

Vermont alone has no such provision on its books. At the federal level, an amendment demanding a balanced budget passed the House in 1995 and came within one vote of passing the Senate.

The word 'budget' comes from the Old French 'bougette', which was a small version of what everyday object?

A leather bag is where a treasury minister was imagined to keep his fiscal plans, which is how a word for a little sack came to mean a statement of expected spending by 1733.

On the first day of which month does the US federal government's fiscal year begin?

October has opened the federal fiscal year since 1976, when Washington moved its year-end from 30 June to 30 September. Most states kept the older July start.

Disposable income is what remains after tax; which kind of income is the money left once essential bills are paid too?

Discretionary income is the real spending-money figure, and the two terms are often mixed up: 'disposable' sounds like spare cash, yet it must first cover every necessary bill.

Which budgeting motto, the basis of the 80/20 plan, means moving money into savings before spending on anything else?

Pay yourself first flips the usual order of a budget: at least 20% of net income is saved up front, and the remaining 80% can then be spent freely.

Which budgeting app, built by accounting student Jesse Mecham in 2004, tells users to 'give every dollar a job'?

YNAB, short for You Need a Budget, began as software Mecham wrote during his master's degree after he and his spouse hit money trouble and decided to budget better.

Which term for money set aside gradually for a known future cost was first used to pay down Britain's national debt?

Sinking fund was the name for the reserve Robert Walpole used in 1716 to retire public debt, though the device began with the tax syndicates of 14th-century Italian cities.

Which budget term, from the Latin for 'it is wanting', describes a year in which spending outruns income?

Deficit was the word that opened clauses of an inventory in Latin, and English borrowed it from French in the 1780s to mean a shortfall in money.

Net income, the figure that the 50/30/20 budget rule divides into three, goes by which everyday name?

Take-home pay is what is left of a paycheck once taxes and other deductions come out, which is why a spending plan starts from it and not from the bigger gross figure.

Which kind of 'creep' turns former luxuries into perceived necessities when spending rises at the same rate as income?

Lifestyle creep can follow a pay rise or a paid-off mortgage, and it shows up in purchases such as expensive vehicles, a second home or club memberships with ongoing costs.

Which Nobel laureate developed 'mental accounting', the theory that people sort money into separate imaginary pots?

Richard Thaler's theory explains a classic finding: people will drive 20 minutes to save $5 on a $15 purchase but not on a $125 one, though the saving is identical. He won the economics Nobel in 2017.

In the classic economics model of a nation's spending choices, 'guns' are traded off against which kitchen staple?

Butter stands for civilian goods such as schools, hospitals and roads. One theory traces the phrase to press coverage of a 1916 US act to make nitrates for fertiliser in peace and munitions in war.

India's finance minister marks the start of printing the Union Budget by serving staff which sweet dish?

Halwa is served because Indian custom calls for sharing something sweet before an important task. The ceremony also begins a spell of isolation for the ministry staff who print the documents.

Which meat names the US practice of steering federal spending to local projects in a politician's own district?

Pork barrel started out harmless: an 1863 story by Edward Everett Hale used it for any public spending on citizens, and only after the Civil War did it become an insult.

Which nonpartisan agency, created by a 1974 act that Richard Nixon signed, estimates what proposed US laws would cost?

Congressional Budget Office was inspired by California's Legislative Analyst's Office, and it publishes cost estimates for bills without making any policy recommendations.

Which religious payment, named from the Old English for 'tenth', takes a fixed share of a believer's income?

Tithe kept its church meaning while 'tenth' took over as the ordinary number word. It was once compulsory and paid in farm produce; modern ones are normally voluntary and paid in money.

Which word, from the Latin for 'harsh', names a government programme of spending cuts and tax rises to curb borrowing?

Austerity had a famous critic in John Maynard Keynes, who argued that 'the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.'

Which Founding Father's Poor Richard's Almanack gave rise to the proverb 'A penny saved is a penny earned'?

Benjamin Franklin never printed those exact words: the familiar version is a misquotation of his almanac's line, in which a penny saved was worth twopence.

Which sweet did Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel famously offer children in his studies of delayed gratification?

Marshmallow at once, or a second treat for waiting, was the choice. A far larger replication found only half the original effect and suggested family money, not willpower, explained the rest.

Which figure, used by Forbes to rank the world's billionaires, equals all that a person owns minus all they owe?

Net worth counts a person's retirement accounts, home and vehicles on the plus side, and the same sum is worked out for companies, governments and even entire countries.

Which term for long-term savings first meant a real or artificial object left under a hen to keep her laying?

Nest egg has meant retirement savings since 1700, on the idea of something laid up as the beginning of a continued growth.

Cash machine pioneer John Shepherd-Barron planned a six-digit PIN until which relative could only remember four digits?

His wife set a habit for the world: four digits became the most common PIN length in many places, though banks in Switzerland and many other countries insist on six.

Which scam, first documented on AOL in 1995, uses fake messages to trick people into revealing bank passwords?

Phishing had an early tool in AOHell, a 1994 program that let users pose as AOL staff and message victims asking them to reveal their passwords.

Which kind of US bank account, called a current account in Britain, is built for frequent payments and withdrawals?

Checking account money is held 'on demand': the owner can reach it immediately and as often as they like, or direct the bank to pay it to somebody else.

Which kind of financial institution, pioneered in 1850s Germany, is a nonprofit owned by its own members?

Credit union history is dated from 1852, when Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch built on two pilot projects in Saxony to form what are generally recognised as the first in the world.

Which banking facility, first granted in 1728 by the Royal Bank of Scotland, lets a customer spend below a zero balance?

Overdraft history began with merchant William Hogg, who was struggling to balance his books and was allowed to draw on an empty account to pay his debts before his own payments came in.

Which insurance term, called the 'excess' in Britain, names what a policyholder pays before the insurer pays anything?

Deductible and price pull in opposite directions: insurers typically charge less for a policy when the customer agrees to shoulder more of each claim first.

Which US tax form, which employers must give staff by 31 January, reports a year's wages and the tax withheld?

W-2 forms, officially titled the Wage and Tax Statement, are due in January so that workers have time to prepare their returns before the standard 15 April deadline.

Which author's 1997 bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad contrasts his own father with his best friend's wealthy father?

Robert Kiyosaki avoided questions about the 'rich dad' for years, raising suspicions that no such person existed, until Hawaiian hotel developer Richard Kimi was identified as the mentor after his death.

Which ancient city is the setting of George S. Clason's 1926 book of money parables told by a scribe named Arkad?

Babylon is in the title, The Richest Man in Babylon: Arkad starts as a poor scribe, grows wealthy and hands on his 'Seven Cures' for making money.

Which shop scheme, common in the Great Depression, holds goods back until the buyer has paid for them in instalments?

Layaway was widely withdrawn in the 1980s as credit cards spread, but Walmart brought it back in 2011 when shoppers were finding credit harder to get.

Which sociologist coined 'conspicuous consumption' in 1899 for buying luxuries mainly as a public display of wealth?

Thorstein Veblen also gave his name to 'Veblen goods', luxuries for which demand climbs as the price goes up, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand.

Which British savings product, sold since 1956, pays no interest but enters holders in a monthly prize draw?

Premium Bonds turn the interest into a lottery, and the winning numbers are picked by ERNIE, a machine whose name is short for Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment.

Which kind of fund, also called a contingency fund, is a safety net for job loss or sudden car repairs?

Emergency fund savings are meant to stop a lost job or a broken home appliance from leaving someone dependent on credit, falling into debt or running out of money altogether.

Which word for an unexpected gain of money first meant wood or fruit brought to the ground by a gale?

Windfall wood and fruit were free to all, since nature had done the harvesting, and by the 1540s the word had stretched to cover any unexpected acquisition.

Which Gilded Age financier, known as 'the richest woman in America', was nicknamed the 'Witch of Wall Street'?

Hetty Green may have got the name from her dour black dress, a product of frugality, and the Guinness Book of World Records later named her the 'greatest miser' for a time.

Which word describes the closing of non-essential US federal services, required since 1980 when funding lapses?

Shutdown rules come from a law passed in 1870, yet only since a legal opinion by Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti has it been read as forcing unfunded agencies to stop work.

Which kind of veto, barred to presidents but held by most US governors, strikes single parts from a spending bill?

Line-item veto powers once ran so far in Wisconsin that governors could strike individual letters within words to make new words, the 'Vanna White veto' abolished by a 1990 amendment.

Which tax-advantaged US plan, also called a qualified tuition program, is designed for saving towards college costs?

529 plan money was freed in 2017 to pay school tuition from kindergarten up, after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act widened what counts as a qualified expense.