Harvard’s mixed anecdotes

Mixed metaphors are a well-known class. Now we have mixed anecdotes, from a former president of Harvard University no less.

In an interview on Bloomberg, Larry Summers referred to the activities of the US government as being similar to “King Canute plugging the dam”.

Larry—former and possible future US Treasury Secretary—seems to be mixing up two ancient European anecdotes that were not even synchronous:

1. People tried to flatter the Viking King Canute (died 1035) by telling him that even the sea would obey him. Canute said that was nonsense, and to prove it he ordered that his throne be taken to the edge of the sea at low tide. He sat in the throne and “commanded” the sea not to come in. But of course the sea kept coming, eventually forcing Canute to move. Although this proved Canute’s relative humility, it is often misinterpreted as proving his arrogance.
2. In the supposedly Dutch anecdote of years later, Hans Brinker was a little boy who found a small hole in a dyke (not dam, Larry), letting water leak out. Fearing that the hole would get larger and larger, and many people would die from flooding, he plugged the hole with his finger and stayed there throughout the cold night until help came.

When someone who once headed one of the world’s most important universities and may soon head the world’s largest bank (the new soviet-style US Treasury) gets such trivial matters confused, is it any wonder that the US financial system is collapsing? We can only hope that if Larry does become US Treasury Secretary again he will not be prone to mixed currencies.