As a political junkie, I am pretty good at Washington trivial pursuits but here is a question I asked myself the other day which left me pretty stumped; name any US secretary of commerce.

Off the top of the head, only three came to mind – Herbert Hoover, for all the obvious reasons, Ron Brown, wheeling and dealing in the first Bill Clinton cabinet, and Juanita Kreps in Jimmy Carter’s, and only because she was part of my beat then. All the rest, including the incumbent, are long forgotten, if ever known.