Before Bank Underground goes off on its Christmas holidays, it’s time for the Annual Bank Underground Christmas Quiz! We hope you enjoy testing your knowledge on our festive themed questions on economics, finance and all things central banking…
1) The G-funk classic ‘Regulate’ was a 1994 hit for whom?
Notorious B.I.G.
Incorrect
Warren G (feat Nate Dogg)
Correct. Source: ‘Official Charts‘.
Dr Dre (feat Snoop Dogg)
Incorrect
2 Pac
Incorrect
2) Ebenezer Scrooge’s creditworthiness at which Square Mile financial institution is mentioned in the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol?
The Bank of England
Incorrect
The Royal Exchange
Correct. The Royal Exchange. Dickens writes: ‘Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change for anything he chose to put his hand to’. Using the Victorian nickname ‘Change’ for the Royal Exchange. See ‘‘A Christmas Carol’… London Locations‘ for more information.
Lloyds of London
Incorrect
The Jamaica Wine House
Incorrect
3) Former Bank of England Governor Montagu Norman was such a regular traveller from Victoria on his foreign trips that the Bank’s archives document him giving Christmas gifts to officials from the Southern Railway. What did he buy them?
Champagne
Incorrect
Stilton
Correct. As documented by Mike Anson in ‘Insights into an enigma? Discovering Montagu Norman through the Bank of England Archive‘.
Foie Gras
Incorrect
Venison
Incorrect
4) What was the reindeer themed name of the Reichsbank’s president during Germany’s 1920s hyperinflation episode?
Rudolf Havenstein
Correct. See Rudolf Havenstein for more information.
Ernst-Ludwig Blitzen
Incorrect
Heinrich Dascher
Incorrect
Karl-Heinz Donner
Incorrect
5) Which of these English football teams has not been known as the ‘Bank of England Club’ at some point due to their seemingly limitless wealth?
Sunderland
Incorrect
Arsenal
Incorrect
Chelsea
Incorrect
Manchester United
Correct
6) This time last year research suggested that 49% of Brits would spend less on Christmas presents. The main reason was the impact of the pandemic on their finances (35%). What was the second most frequent response?
Don’t plan on visiting shops this year so expect to spend less.
Correct. 28% – as detailed in ‘Christmas shopping and spending statistics UK | 2020‘.
I don’t want to buy gifts/expensive gifts for people who may feel bad if they’re not able to do the same.
Incorrect
Not sure if seeing friends/extended relatives so don’t intend to buy for them.
Incorrect
Don’t see the point in spending lots with Lockdowns and restrictions on our movement.
Incorrect
7) This year all the talk is of ‘supply shortages’ leading to a lack of Christmas presents. But when was the famous ‘Cabbage Patch Doll’ crisis, where a shortage of the dolls that are ‘so ugly they’re cute’ led to fights breaking out in stores and a black market where parents were paying 2 or 3 times the face value of the dolls just so their children would not be disappointed?
1983
Correct
1993
Incorrect
2003
Incorrect
2013
Incorrect
8) UK trade statistics are classified using the Common Nomenclature (CN) classification system. Christmas trees are traded under the CN 8-digit code ‘06042020 Christmas Trees’. What share of total UK exports in 2016 was in this product group?
0.0001%
Incorrect
0.0003%
Incorrect
0.001%
Correct. Source: Bank calculations based on data from UK HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics.
0.003%
Incorrect
9) According to estimates by financial services company PNC, which of the following gifts from the classic holiday song, ‘The twelve days of Christmas’ has risen in price the most in percentage terms between 2019 and 2021?
Three French hens
Incorrect
Five gold rings
Incorrect
Six geese-a-laying
Correct. It grew by 57.1% as documented in ‘The PNC Christmas Price Index‘.
Twelve drummers drumming
Incorrect
10) Sadly there is no Christmas Tree Bank, but which other arboreal related name below is NOT a bank authorised in the UK?
Redwood Bank
Incorrect
Spruce Bank
Correct. Spruce Bank is not authorised in the UK. And if you’re wondering what Norinchukin has to do with trees, it’s from the Japanese Nō – Rin – Chūō – Kinko – Agriculture – forestry – central – credit union. Bank of England list of Banks – August 2021.
Oak North Bank
Incorrect
The Norinchukin Bank
Incorrect
11) ISO country codes are internationally recognized codes that designate every country. What is the Alpha-3 ISO Code for the Christmas Islands?
SNW
Incorrect
CXR
Correct
CXT
Incorrect
CIL
Incorrect
12) Which central bank, the oldest on its continent, celebrated its centenary this year?
Reserve Bank of Australia
Incorrect
Reserve Bank of India
Incorrect
South African Reserve Bank
Correct. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) opened its doors for business on the 30 June 1921 and issued its first banknotes to the public on 19 April 1922, as documented in SARB, ‘History‘.
The Federal Reserve System
Incorrect
13) Which British economist attributed to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, in a book published just before Christmas in 1919, that ‘[t]here is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency’?
John Maynard Keynes
Correct. Published in The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919. There is some controversy as to whether Keynes was truly quoting Lenin, or if the statement should be attributed to Keynes himself.
Alfred Marshall
Incorrect
Joan Robinson
Incorrect
Adam Smith
Incorrect
14) Which of the following is the first sentence from the first chapter of the first book from Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations’?
The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consists always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.
Incorrect. Fun Fact: It is the first sentence from ‘Introduction and Plan of the Work’.
The greatest improvement in the productive power of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgement with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.
Correct. It is the first sentence from Chapter 1 of Book One.
The great commerce of every civilized society is that carried on between the inhabitants of the town and those of the country.
Incorrect. Fun Fact: It is the first sentence from Chapter 1 of Book Three.
As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power, or, in other words, by the extent of the market.
Incorrect. Fun Fact: It is the first sentence of Chapter 3 of Book One.
Q14 – You have a strange definition of ‘fun facts’. Either you have spent too long working in banking, or you have an Atacama desert sense of humour.