And secondly, I'd ask him for his honest views on whether, at this time in American history, we should be repealing the estate tax or whether he thinks that great wealth should not pass from generation to generation without some piece of it being nicked for the public treasury.

NPR: Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Treasury Nominee

And combining the result with Iceland's excellent medical records, which stretch back the best part of a century, means that the map can be used to identify disease genes as they pass from one generation to another.

ECONOMIST: Human genetics

Yes, a few journalists, including me, have shed some light on how they managed to build and pass along such Brobdingnagian wealth from one generation to the next and the next. (Currently, 10 members of the Pritzker clan, including Penny, are individually rich enough to be on the Forbes 400 list.) But the family has remained largely mute on the subject.

FORBES: 5 Questions Congress Should Ask Obama Commerce Nominee Penny Pritzker