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Test your business IQ

Exercised your economic noggin lately? Cogitate on this biz quiz. All 20 right? Thank your Mom for a great upbringing. More than 15? Not bad. Less than half correct? A highly paid job as a senior government adviser is in your future.

By Times Staff
Published May 8, 2006

1. If last week's average price for a gallon of regular gas here was just less than $2.90, what was the price one year ago?

A. $1.98

B. $2.39

C. $2.19

D. Who cares? We may never see any of those prices again.

2. The founder of a new luxury retailer coming to the Tampa Bay area was:

A. Coco Crisp

B. Hot Coco

C. Coco Lopez

D. Coco Chanel

3. Florida legislators last week wanted to send $140 apiece to what lucky Floridians?

A. Illegal immigrants

B. Florida homeowners

C. National Guard members

D. Top-paid CEOs

4. Who backed out of a deal with Trump Tower Tampa in March, a month after its ceremonial groundbreaking?

A. The Donald himself

B. Builder Turner Construction Co.

C. Kelly Perdew, winner on The Apprentice

D. Donald Trump Jr.

5. The new corporate name of Tampa's Outback Steakhouse Inc. is:

A. OSI Restaurant Partners

B. Bloomin' Partners

C. No Rules Inc.

D. Steak and Ache Inc.

6. Still in bankruptcy, this company tried a team-building plan asking for employee "volunteers'' to help scrape chewing gum and clean toilets for no pay:

A. Winn-Dixie

B. Delphi

C. Northwest

D. Delta

7. Since Florida's $6.15 minimum wage rule took effect last spring, the hourly minimum pay has bumped up to:

A. $6.20

B. $6.25

C. $6.40

D. $6.50

8. Three major area schools - USF Tampa, USF St. Petersburg and the University of Tampa - have been searching for deans for their business schools. Two openings remain. Who was recently hired?

A. Robert Forsythe at USF Tampa

B. John Kenneth Galbraith at UTampa

C. Milton Friedman at USF St. Pete

D. Ben Bernanke at UTampa

9. The median sales price of an existing Tampa Bay home was $222,800 in March. Ten years ago, it was:

A. $60,000

B. $80,000

C. $120,000

D. $145,000

10. What California research institute is in talks to set up a facility at USF St. Petersburg?

A. Scripps

B. Burnham

C. SRI

D. Milken

11. "Don't get me wrong, the culture wasn't sick, just tired, in need of a recharge.'' Which prominent manager said that last month?

A. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis

B. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner

C. Former Enron chairman Ken Lay

D. Tech Data CEO Steve Raymund

12. The investment firm with influential stakes in Tampa's Anchor Glass, Albertsons and General Motors Acceptance Corp. is named for a:

A. Moon of Saturn

B. Three-headed dog of Hades

C. Kentucky Derby winner

D. Ronald Reagan movie

13. As of March, Florida had a civilian work force of 8.86-million. How many were unemployed?

A. 27,400

B. 274,000

C. 2,740,000

D. 27

14. Florida is home to a new jet taxi service called:

A. Zoom Zoom

B. AirCab

C. ValuJet

D. DayJet

15. Verizon is taking on area cable companies with a new TV service called FiOS, which stands for:

A. Fiber Optic Services

B. First Online Signal

C. Fiber Over Satellite

D. Not a darn thing

16. Tampa's Busch Gardens is market-ing itself anew under what name?

A. Busch Gardens Florida

B. Busch Gardens, The Dark Continent

C. Busch Gardens Africa

D. Busch Gardens Budweiser

17. He was named most often as Tampa Bay's top business leader in an early 2006 St. Petersburg Times survey of area executives.

A. Joe Redner of Mons Venus

B. Kiran Patel of the Patel Foundation

C. Vince Naimoli, former owner of the Devil Rays

D. Tom James of Raymond James

18. Rank these Florida metro areas by office vacancy rates, lowest to highest.

A. Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville

B. Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami

C. Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville

D. Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa

19. This bank operating here publicly refused to lend to developers who gained land seized by eminent domain:

A. Fifth Third

B. BB&T

C. SunTrust

D. AmSouth

20. The record number of visitors in 2005 that came to Florida, says the state's Visit Florida tourism agency:

A. 10.2-million

B. 133.9-million

C. 85.8-million

D. 211.5-million

ANSWERS: 1. (C), 2. (D), 3. (B), 4. (B), 5. (A), 6. (D), 7. (C), 8. (A), 9. (B), 10. (C), 11. (D), 12. (B), 13. (B), 14. (D), 15. (A), 16. (C), 17. (D), 18. (A), 19. (B), 20. (C)

[Last modified May 8, 2006, 06:01:19]