The Business School Dean's Quiz for 2015

Give yourself three points for each right answer until the last, which, if you guess correctly, is worth four points. The Dean's guesses are shown at the end. We'll compare our guesses with reality at the end of 2015.
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Give yourself three points for each right answer until the last, which, if you guess correctly, is worth four points. The Dean's guesses are shown at the end. We'll compare our guesses with reality at the end of 2015.

1.The most successful IPO of 2015: (a) Palantir (b) Shake Shack (c) DropBox (d) Uber (e) Vine (f) Koch Industries (g) Other.

2.The national leader who will not survive the year in office: (a) Vladimir Putin (b) David Cameron (c) Kim Jung-Un (d) Raul Castro (e) Bibi Netanyahu (f) none of the above.

3.M&A deal of the year (a) Yahoo/CNN (b) IBM-Fortinet (c) News Corp-Twitter (d) Apple-PayPal (e) Google-GoPro (f) Pfizer/ISIS Pharmaceuticals (g) Netflix-Pandora.

4.Leader facing the strongest challenge from within his or her own support base: (a) Barack Obama (b) Pope Francis I (c) John Boehner (d) Hillary Clinton (e) Roger Goodell.

5.S&P 500 at year-end 2015 vs. 2014: (a) up double digits (b) up single digit (c) basically flat (d) down.

6.Federal funds rate at year-end 2015 (a) 1.25 percent or higher (b) 1 percent (c) .75 percent: (d) .50 percent (e) .25 percent or lower.

7.Car maker of the year: (a) General Motors (b) BMW (c) Ford (d) Tesla (e) Fiat Chrysler.

8.Will go out of business in 2015: (a) Sears (b) RadioShack (c) Sandridge Energy (d) Uber (e) JC Penny (f) AirAsia.

9.Will default on its debt in 2015: (a) Russia (b) Argentina (c) Greece (d) Venezuela (e) Ukraine (f) Illinois (g) none of the above (h) all of the above.

10.Surprise political event of the year: (a) Hillary Clinton chooses not to run for President (b) Elizabeth Warren chooses to run, beats Hillary in New Hampshire (c) Obama-Boehner do a deal on immigration backed by Silicon Valley, Chamber of Commerce and Catholic bishops (d) Supreme Court again saves ObamaCare subsidies by one vote (e) Democrats concede nomination in advance to Mrs. Clinton, hold primaries for VP choice only (f) Romney runs again (g) none of the above.

11.GOP presidential candidate who makes the most progress in the polls in 2015: (a) Jeb Bush (b) Dr. Benjamin Carson (c) Ted Cruz (d) Carly Fiorina (e) Mike Pence (f) Rick Santorum (g) Rand Paul.

12.Print edition goes dark: (a) The New Republic (b) Time (c) Playboy (d) The Village Voice (e) Variety (f) The Atlantic Monthly (g) none of the above.

13."Comeback of the Year": (a) Tiger Woods (b) Twitter stock (c) President Obama (d) General Electric (e) McDonalds (f) Oil (g) other.

14.First producer to curtail oil production in 2015: (a) United States (b) Saudi Arabia (c) Russia (d) Venezuela (e) Iraq (f) none of the above.

15.Keystone XL pipeline gets final approval: (a) True (b) False.

16.Congress and the President agree on a corporate tax reform plan: (a) True (b) False.

17.Microsoft spins-off X-Box business (a) True (b) False.

18.Pope Francis conditionally allows communion for divorced/remarried Catholics: (a) True (b) False.

19.Obama's immigration executive order effectively blocked by Congress or the courts: (a) True (b) False.

20.The European Central Bank initiates government and/or bond purchases ("quantitative easing") to prevent European recession: (a) True (b) False.

21.Unemployment in the U.S. ticks up above 6 percent again due to oil industry layoffs: (a) True (b) False.

22.A top-100 American private college files for bankruptcy protection (a) True (b) False.

23.China GDP growth slows below 7 percent: (a) True (b) False.

24.A major Canadian bank requires a bailout due to soured oil loans (a) True (b) False.

25.Oil bust dooms Rick Perry's presidential campaign from the get-go: (a) True (b) False.

26.The interest rate on the ten-year Treasury note ends the year above 3.25 percent: (a) True (b) False.

27.Campus fraternity bans challenged in court as a form of sex discrimination: (a) True (b) False.

28.President Obama has the opportunity to replace one or more Supreme Court Justice: (a) True (b) False.

29.Political rioting significantly disrupt commercial activity in (a) United States (b) Australia (c) France (d) Denmark (d) Germany (e) Greece (f) Spain.

30.Private Equity deal of the year: (a) Whole Foods (b) any mattress company (c) RiteAid (d) VeriPhone (e) Garmin (f) Under Armour (g) none of the above.

31.Hottest growth stock of 2015: (a) GoPro (b) Twitter (c) ISIS Pharmaceuticals (d) NXP International (e) Apple (f) Hortonworks, Inc. (g) New Relic Inc. (h) other.

32.First CEO to go: (a) Dick Costolo - Twitter (b) Marissa Mayer - Yahoo (c) Ginny Rometty - IBM (d) Michael Lyntton - Sony Entertainment (e) Mark Emmert - NCAA (f) Debbie Wasserman-Schultz - Democratic National Committee.

33."Product of the Year": (a) Apple's I-Watch (b) the GoPro drone (c) NASA-derived 'meal-in-a capsule' (d) 3-D printers for kids (e) all-electric motorcycles (with recorded engine sounds) (f) Vines.

Guesses from Terry Connelly, Dean Emeritus, Ageno School of Business, Golden Gate University: 1(a) 2(f) 3(b) 4(b) 5(a) 6(c) 7(e) 8(b) 9 (g) 10(c) 11(b) 12(a) 13(c) 14(a) 15(b) 16(b) 17(a) 18(a) 19(b) 20(a) 21(b) 22(b) 23(b) 24(a) 25(b) 26(b) 27(a) 28(a) 29(c) 30(a) 31(f) 32(f) 33(d).

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By Terry Connelly, Dean Emeritus, Ageno School of Business, Golden Gate University

Terry Connelly is an economic expert and dean emeritus of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Terry holds a law degree from NYU School of Law and his professional history includes positions with Ernst & Young Australia, the Queensland University of Technology Graduate School of Business, New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, global chief of staff at Salomon Brothers investment banking firm and global head of investment banking at Cowen & Company. In conjunction with Golden Gate University President Dan Angel, Terry co-authored Riptide: The New Normal In Higher Education

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