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Off the Target
The Stagnating Political
Economy of Europe and
Post-Pandemic Recovery
Muhammad Ali Nasir
 Off the Target

“Muhammad Ali Nasir has written a remarkable book full of new insights in the
difficult process of European integration and the financial crises of recent times
that resulted in a lost decade for the continent. This book is a must-read for
anyone who is seriously interested in understanding the mechanisms that led to
the problems Europe encounters and in the potential ways ahead.”
—Hans-Werner Sinn, Professor Emeritus of Economics and Public Finance,
University of Munich, Germany

“After providing insightful accounts of the moves to union and integration in

Europe, this impressive book provides detailed analyses and critiques of the
macroeconomic policies of the euro area institutions in the ‘lost decade’ of the
2010s. It also evaluates the prospects for a post-pandemic recovery and whether
a second ‘lost decade’ can be avoided, fully cognizant of the major challenges
faced by the euro area.”
—Malcolm Sawyer, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Leeds, UK

“This is a timely book on European economic and social policy. As we have seen
during the Euro Crisis, the European integration has weakened nation states
without the Union stepping. EU policies had deepened the economic crisis.
The Covid Crisis requires the EU to change course and develop its capacity to
support its citizens. Off the Target is a useful guide through current debates.”
—Engelbert Stockhammer, Professor of Political Economy, King’s College
London, UK

“At this time of grave ecological insecurity and dangerous imperialist rivalries,
a democratic and social European Union could emerge as a progressive, green,
stabilising power in world politics. This detailed and authoritative account of
the emergence of the European Union’s political economy is both timely and
an invaluable resource for diplomats, scholars and politicians. It already has a
significant place on my bookshelf.”
—Ann Pettifor, Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME)

“This book gives a fascinating history of the European Monetary Union and the
role of Target2 mechanism in internalizing the financial and economic fissures
within the Eurozone area. At the heart of the Euro experiment is the question
whether a single currency will be the bonding glue for fiscal, security and political
union or instead, a formula for stagnation or Lost Decade2.0. Read this book
to find out the answers.”
—Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow at University of Hong Kong, Adjunct
Professor Tsinghua and Peking Universities

“This book does a fantastic job assessing the European Union’s decade in
turmoil – the 2010s – when it plunged from one crisis to another including the
Eurozone debt crisis, austerity and Brexit. In accounting for the ‘lost decade’,
politics and economics are beautifully woven together, combining topics ranging
from European identity and politics of convergence to the intricacies of mone-
tary, fiscal and financial policies in the Eurozone. This is also an ambitious
and forward-looking account, tackling green finance, digital transformation and
potential trade wars – key policy issues of our time.”
—Gulcin Ozkan is Vice Dean and Professor in Finance at King’s Business School,
King’s College London
 Muhammad Ali Nasir

Off the Target

The Stagnating Political Economy of Europe
and Post-Pandemic Recovery
Muhammad Ali Nasir
Huddersfield Business School
University of Huddersfield
Huddersfield, UK
Research Fellow at University
of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK

ISBN 978-3-030-88184-9 ISBN 978-3-030-88185-6 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88185-6

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Dedicated to my grandmother Evelyn Servant that she has been a source of
great inspiration and the best grandma ever. To my mother Nasim and
father Imdad Hussain.
 Preface

Leaving the European Union will be the best thing that can ever happen
to the UK, we must leave and take back control from Brussels, some-
body said in a voice full of emotions. No, that would be disastrous,
it is economically and geopolitically suicidal, we must stay, somebody
else said equally passionately. Membership of the EU was the talk of
the town and there was not a day when somebody did not mention
the word Brexit. But the debate was not just limited to and focusing
on the geographical boundaries of the UK, there were longstanding and
even tougher questions on the membership of the European Union and
particularly on those countries that had signed up for a common currency
formulating the Eurozone. Debate on the European Sovereign Debt Crisis,
bailouts, austerity and associated tragedies was anything but over yet, the
historic announcement by the British prime minister in February 2016
on Brexit Referendum had profound significance and the events that
followed overshadowed everything in both UK and EU for the years to
come.
There were many questions, more than we can find answers to. What is
the European Union, is it something which is defined by the EU treaties
and regulations that are not always easy to comprehend by a layman? or
is it something a lot deeper? Are the foundations of the European Union
underpinned by economic necessity or is it all about politics? Politics,
that is not always very clean! But is there something there in European
history that is even more profound, yet often condoned? My grandma

vii
viii PREFACE

who has lived through the second world war says there is nothing new
under the sun! well, does it mean that all the developments and ideas of
European Integration are not very new and if they aren’t, why they have
not been applied before and what it is that makes the European Union,
and everything associated with it the way it is at present? Again, a lot
of questions, perhaps more than the number of problems and issues the
European Union is faced with.
Through the lens of an economist, this book is an endeavour to dig
deeper into the development of the European Monetary Union, issues it
faces, the influence of politics, historical events in shaping and defining
what is now. It is also a critical analysis and reflection on an unfortunate
Lost Decade of economic progress in one of the oldest, historically and
culturally richest continent of the world. Why and where it went OFF
The Target ! and how we can put it right. In the self-inflicted, stagnating
political economy of the European Union that was not short of challenges
to start with, the Pandemic is just another one, yet existential. God forbid,
if Europe does not get it right this time, it could be a Lost Decade 2.0
at least or to our fears, it could be the timber plank that will definitely
break the back of the camel of European integration. In a world that is
changing more rapidly than ever before and the centre of gravity of the
global economy is shifting eastward, the margin of error for Europe is
very slim. Nobody takes lessons from you if your economy is stagnating.
European ambitions of global leadership on climate change, sustainable
development and geopolitical issues will remain wishful thinking if we do
not get it right this time. It’s Europe’s last shot.

Huddersfield, UK Muhammad Ali Nasir

 Contents

1 Wrong Intentions and Flawed Foundations 1

European Identity and Integration in European Blood 1
From Fall of the Berlin to the Rubble of Berlin Wall 5
German Unification and Road to Maastricht 20
Maastricht Treaty—Conception of Tragedy 23
Maastricht to Amsterdam 30
Politics and Economics of Convergence 35
Euro—The Birth of Tragedy 38
2 Great Moderation Let the Party Going 47
Treaty of Nice and Eastward Expansion 47
Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE): Rome
to Lisbon 51
Berlin Declaration and Treaty of Lisbon 53
Steroid-Enhanced Economic Development Post-Euro 57
3 Global Financial Crisis—Tip of the Iceberg 65
First Test and Longest Battle of ECB 65
Long-Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs) and Whatever
It Takes! 80
Stabil Wie Die Mark 85
Conventional to Non-conventional and Asset Purchase
Programme 87
Refinancing Operations but This Time They Are “ Targeted” 91

ix
x CONTENTS

Asset Purchase Programme (APP) 96

Going Below Zero 115
Forward Guidance 119
4 Flawed Fiscal and Stimulus Plans: A World Beyond
ECB 123
A European Economic Recovery Plan 123
Fiscal Manoeuvres in Limited Space 130
German Fascination with Balancing 130
French Finance for Financial Sector 134
Spanish Stimulus Generosity with Design Flaw 137
Italy Wrong Side of Business Cycle 139
Netherland’s Robustness but Not Rapid Recovery 141
Britain’s Early Withdrawal and Austerity 143
5 A Jigsaw of Financial Institutions and Unions Within
Union 147
European Financial Stabilisation Facility/Mechanism
(EFSF/M) 147
European Stability Mechanism (ESM) 153
Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) 163
Financial Stability in the EMU and the European System
of Financial Supervision (ESFS) 164
Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) 169
Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) 173
European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) 177
Union of Compromises and Completion of the Banking
Union 179
Unions Within the Unions 182
Capital Requirements Regulation and Directives 186
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) 187
EU Reforms Plans of Four Presidents 187
Five Presidents Plan 190
A New Commissioner a New Plan: Junker Plan 194
COVID and Europe: ESM, EIB and SURE 195
Fiscal Union or Framework for Fiscal Policies 198
Fiscal Stability Treaty or Treaty on Stability, Coordination
and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union
(TSCG) 200
European Fiscal Compact 202
 CONTENTS xi

European Fiscal Board 204

Learning from Good Practices 207
6 Stagnation in Europe: A Lost Decade 211
Europe Will Above All Be Judged on Results 211
7 TARGET2: Off the TARGET 225
Eurozone Monetary system—A Hub with Many Spokes 225
Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement
Express Transfer System (TARGET2) 228
OFF the TARGET 231
Secret Bailout, Is It or Isn’t? 238
Stagnation & Settlement of TARGET2 243
A Settlement Mechanism 257
8 Europe: The Way Forward 267
Seven Decades of Integration: A Work Still in Process 267
COVID-19 Mother of All Crisis for EU 269
ECB’s Response: Another Battle to Pick 270
Fiscal Measures: Death of Debt Break 272
EU and European Commission’s Response 275
Green New Deal, Digital Agenda and Ambitions for Global
Leadership 282
A Europe Without UK 285
Rising Asia, New Trade and Cold Wars 289
Can Europe Be a Good Example? Closing Remarks 293

Appendix “A” 297

References 299
Index 311
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 United States’ reaction to the slow negotiations

for the establishment of a European Payments Union
(Source Evening Standard. 28.12.1949. London. “Time,
Gentlemen, please!”, auteur: David Low) 8
Fig. 1.2 Joining the European Payments Union (EPU) (Source
Daily Herald. 28.03.1950, n° 10 625. London.
“Slightly mixed bathing”, Auteur: David Low. On
28 March 1950, the British cartoonist, David Low,
illustrates the hesitations of Ernest Bevin, British Foreign
Secretary [left], and Hugh Gaitskell, British Chancellor
of the Exchequer [right], at calls from Paul Hoffman,
US administrator of the Economic Cooperation
Administration [ECA] given the task of managing
the distribution of funds under the Marshall Plan,
for them to join the future European Payments Union
[EPA]) 9

xiii
xiv LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1.3 Maastricht European Council (9 December 1991)

(Source Horst Haitzinger. Copyright: “Horst Haitzinger,
München”. Maastricht open-air swimming pool: “Follow
me! Let us know if there’s any water in the pool!”’
On 9 December 1991, on the eve of the Maastricht
European Council, German cartoonist Horst Haitzinger
takes an ironic look at the commitment [“follow me!”]
of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to Economic
and Monetary Union [EMU] and to the Treaty
on European Union. French President François
Mitterrand, second in line, seems more reluctant
to take the plunge [“Let us know if there’s any water
in the pool!”], while British Prime Minister John Major
seems to be about to climb down from the diving board) 25
Fig. 1.4 Pillars of the European Union 29
Fig. 1.5 The Europa 1928 39
Fig. 1.6 Inflation, consumer prices for EMU 12 in % (1990
to 2002) (Source FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St.
Louis 2019) 40
Fig. 1.7 Exchange rates; purchasing power parities (PPPs) national
currency per $US (Source OECD) 42
Fig. 1.8 Long-term interest rates (Government bonds maturing
in ten years) 44
Fig. 2.1 Consumer price index percentage change on the same
period of the previous year (Source OECD) 58
Fig. 2.2 Economic activities—Domestic producer
prices—Manufacturing (Source OECD) 59
Fig. 2.3 Purchasing power parities for GDP 60
Fig. 2.4 Deficit to GDP ratios (Source OECD, authors
calculations) 61
Fig. 2.5 Debt/GDP ratios (Source OECD) 62
Fig. 2.6 Government bonds yield maturing in ten years (Source
OECD) 63
Fig. 2.7 Unit labour cost (Source OECD) 63
Fig. 3.1 Annual consolidated balance sheet of the Euro system
1999–2020 (Source ECB, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/
pub/annual/balance/html/index.en.html) 68
Fig. 3.2 Lender of last resort (Source Bankers-banking) 73
 LIST OF FIGURES xv

Fig. 3.3 Long-term Ratings of Euro Area Sovereigns (Source

Barthélemy et al. [2018]. Note The vertical lines show
[1] the first three-year LTRO of 21 December 2011, [2]
the second three-year LTRO of 28 February 2012, [3]
the announcement of the OMT programme on 2 August
2012, [4] the decision to launch the PSPP on 22 January
2015) 74
Fig. 3.4 Variation in the value of Euro Area Collateral (Source
Barthélemy et al. [2018]. Note Haircut and Price
contributions are compared to their average values
between Jan and June 2014) 75
Fig. 3.5 Eligible marketable assets (Euro Billion) (Nominal
amounts, averages of end of month data over each time
period shown. Source ECB, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/
paym/coll/charts/html/index.en.html) 77
Fig. 3.6 Number of Euro-system Counterparties (Note The
vertical lines show [1] the first three-year LTRO of 21
December 2011, [2] the second three-year LTRO of 28
February 2012, [3] the announcement of the OMT
programme on 2 August 2012. Source Barthélemy et al.
[2018]) 81
Fig. 3.7 President Mario Draghi pledge to “Whatever it takes”
and Eurozone bonds yields (Author’s calculations. Source
OECD) 83
Fig. 3.8 ECB’s asset purchase programme with average monthly
target 2015–2021 (Source ECB. *Governing Council
set the monthly average APP targets in March 2015
with the start PSPP) 97
Fig. 3.9 Cumulative net asset purchases 2015–2021 (Source ECB) 99
Fig. 3.10 Fed, Bank of England and ECB Balance sheets (Source
https://voxeu.org/article/ltro-quantitative-easing-disgui
se. Note The Asset side of balance sheets of ECB, Fed
and BoE have been decomposed into five categories) 108
Fig. 3.11 ECB’s key interest rates (Source ECB) 115
Fig. 3.12 European Countries below zero by October 2019 (Source
European Central Bank, Swiss National Bank, Riksbank,
Danmarks Nationalbank) 116
Fig. 3.13 Timeline of ECB’s non-standard measures (Source ECB) 118
Fig. 4.1 Government Consolidated Gross Debt as a Percentage
of GDP (Source Eurostat) 125
xvi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 4.2 Loss of Confidence. High frequency indicators were

rescaled to range between 0 and 100 (Source IMF
https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/28/
04/53/socar012209a) 131
Fig. 4.3 German Export-Led Growth (Index: 1995 = 100)
(Source IMF https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/
2015/09/28/04/53/socar012209a) 132
Fig. 4.4 Rescue Plan for UK Banks Unveiled, How Big is
the Bailout? (Source BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
business/7658277.stm) 144
Fig. 5.1 The three pillars of the banking union (Source The
Oesterreichische Nationalbank [OeNB], https://www.
oenb.at/en/financial-market/three-pillars-banking-union.
html) 169
Fig. 5.2 Single resolution fund (Source Single Resolution Board,
https://srb.europa.eu/en/content/single-resolution-fun
d) 175
Fig. 5.3 Evolution of EDIS funds compared to the funds
of a participating DGS (Source European Commission,
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/graph-151
12014_en.pdf) 178
Fig. 5.4 European system of financial supervision (Source Council
of the European Union https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/
file/esfs-0_en) 181
Fig. 5.5 Building of Eurozone—Unions within Unions (Source
Cagle cartoons) 183
Fig. 5.6 Size of capital market as percentage of GDP of 2018—Q3
(Source European Commission, https://ec.europa.
eu/finance/docs/policy/190315-cmu-communica
tion_en.pdf. EU Top-5 is obtained as GDP-weighted
average for Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark
and Luxembourg with weights of 41, 25, 17, 15 and 2%) 185
Fig. 5.7 Stages towards a genuine EMU (Source European
Council https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_
Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/134069.pdf) 190
Fig. 5.8 “Numerical compliance with EU fiscal rules. The
compliance database of the Secretariat of the European
Fiscal Board”, May 2020 (Source Larch & Santacroce,
2020) 206
Fig. 6.1 Real GDP from 2008 to 2019 (constant 2010 US$:
2008 = 100) (Source World Bank) 213
Fig. 6.2 GDP recovery path in euro area (Source CEPR) 215
 LIST OF FIGURES xvii

Fig. 6.3 Euro area and EU GDP growth rates % change over same
quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted data
(Source Eurostat) 216
Fig. 6.4 GDP level from Global Financial Crisis to COVID-19
(Source OECD. Seasonally Adjustment: Chain linked
volumes, index 2010 = 100 [2008Q1 to 2021Q1]) 216
Fig. 6.5 Eurozone unemployment rates from Global Financial
Crisis to COVID-19 (Source Eurostat) 218
Fig. 6.6 Price stability in Eurozone, all-items harmonised index
of consumer prices (Source Eurostat) 219
Fig. 6.7 Dynamics of current-account balance 2010: Q1-2020:
Q2 (Source OECD) 219
Fig. 6.8 Labour cost index percentage change period on period
(Source Eurostat) 220
Fig. 6.9 Average annual inflation, growth and unemployment
during the Lost Decade—2010–2019 (Source OECD) 221
Fig. 6.10 Real labour productivity per person employed
(2010–2019) (Source Eurostat) 223
Fig. 6.11 COVID-19 and real labour productivity per person
employed (Source Eurostat) 223
Fig. 7.1 TARGET2 payment system, a simple illustration 230
Fig. 7.2 TARGET2 imbalances over two decades—Net claims
on Euro system (Source Euro Crisis Monitor, Institute
of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrück University) 232
Fig. 7.3 Destination of German savings a decade after Euro—2002
to 2010 (Source Sinn [2011a] *The TARGET claims
of the Bundesbank amounted to e325.6 billion
at the end of 2010; at the end of 2001 they were minus
e30.9 billion. By end of September 2020, they have
reached over e1.1 trillion) 238
Fig. 7.4 Current account as % of GDP, Germany, France, GIPS &
Eurozone (Source [OECD]) 245
Fig. 7.5 Saving rate Germany, France, GIIPS & Euro area (Source
[OECD]) 245
Fig. 7.6 Net Capital Stock (1995–2017), Germany compared
to other EU countries (Source European Commission
[2018], https://www.bruegel.org/2018/06/unders
tanding-the-lack-of-german-public-investment/. Notes
Measured in 2010 prices; 1995 values indexed to 100;
Germany in red, all other EU28 countries in grey
colours, European Union in black) 247
xviii LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 7.7 Public investment of Germany and selected EU

countries—Public net fixed capital formation (Source
European Commission [2018]) 248
Fig. 7.8 Germany gross & net fixed capital formation, private &
public sectors (as a % of GDP) (Source Destatis [2018a].
https://www.bruegel.org/2018/06/understanding-the-
lack-of-german-public-investment/) 249
Fig. 7.9 Real gross fixed capital formation to GDP ratios (%)
US & Eurozone (Source European Commission) 251
Fig. 7.10 Infrastructure investment by region, (2008 = 100)
(Source EIB Infrastructure Database [IJ Global, EPEC,
Eurostat]. Note Data missing for Belgium, Croatia,
Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The EU average
excludes the United Kingdom) 252
Fig. 7.11 Actual and potential GDP in the Eurozone (obtained
from Summer, 2014) (Source IMF World Economic
Outlook Databases, Bloomberg) 254
Fig. 7.12 Money supply among Germany, GIIPS, & Eurozone
standardised, seasonally adjusted, year on year % (Source
Eurostat) 262
Fig. 8.1 Projected change in the euro area and euro area
countries’ budget balances relative to the preceding year
(% of GDP) (Source European Commission’s Autumn
2020 Economic Forecast) 274
Fig. 8.2 General governments debts 2019 and 2020 (Source
Eurostat) 275
Fig. 8.3 EU coronavirus response (Source European Commission) 276
Fig. 8.4 Council approval of SURE for 18 EU states (Source
European Commission) 281
Fig. 8.5 The European Green Deal (Source European
Commission) 282
Fig. 8.6 Brexit: what the European Union loses (Source Statista) 288
Fig. 8.7 Changing share of world GDP (PPP) from 2016 to 2050
(Source IMF estimates for 2016 and PWC projections
for 2050) 290
Fig. 8.8 Real GDP growth Eurozone and emerging world
(constant 2010 US$, Year 2010 = 100) (Source Authors’
calculations using data from World Bank) 291
Fig. 8.9 2020 a year of uneven economic losses total, percentage
change, same period previous year, Q4 2020 (Q3
for Greece) (Source OECD) 292
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 Stages of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) 20

Table 1.2 General government debt as % of GDP, 1995–2002 41
Table 1.3 General government deficit as % of GDP, 1995–2002 41
Table 1.4 Maastricht criteria, A snapshot 44
Table 2.1 European Parliament composition 48
Table 2.2 Votes in council and population 49
Table 2.3 Voting weights in both the Council of Ministers
and the European Council 56
Table 2.4 PPPs for GDP, National currency per US dollar
appreciation/depreciation (%) since 1995 60
Table 3.1 Consecutive changes in collateral criteria 72
Table 3.2 Euro-system asset purchase programme holdings (e,
millions) 99
Table 3.3 Breakdown of CBPP3 portfolio by rating and country
of risk 2021Q1 103
Table 3.4 Breakdown of ABSPP portfolio by rating, country of risk
and collateral type: 2021Q1 104
Table 3.5 Breakdown of debt securities under the PSPP: May 2021 111
Table 3.6 Breakdown of CSPP portfolio by sector, rating
and country of risk (semi-annual): 2021Q1 114
Table 5.1 ESM: Lending toolkit 156
Table 5.2 Towards a genuine economic and monetary union
roadmap: Stages and elements 188
Table 5.3 Roadmap towards a complete economic and monetary
union 192

xix
xx LIST OF TABLES

Table 6.1 Growth rates of GDP in volume up to 2020Q2 217

Table 8.1 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021–2027
total allocations 278
Table 8.2 NextGenerationEU breakdown 278
 CHAPTER 1

Wrong Intentions and Flawed Foundations

European Identity and Integration

in European Blood
Built on flawed and uneven foundations a building can be raised to the
Pleiades and it will still be neither strong nor straight. As the ancient
wisdom says, the loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation
be laid. The same logic holds for the architect of the Economic and
Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) which is the longest
economic and political integration project with still work in process and
no ending in sight. Nothing is new under the sun, so does the idea of
the European Unity and Integration which is at least five centuries old.
One can track at least as far back as the year 1464 when following the
fall of Constantinople in 1453, the proposal of the League of Christian
Nations (The Tractatus pacis toti Christianitati fiendae, or Treaty on the
Establishment of Peace throughout Christendom) was made by the Czech
King George of Poděbrady to the French King Louis XI.1 This was a
manifestation of the need and desire for peace and security in Central

1 See, V. Havel, “Dreaming Aloud” in J. Coleman (ed), The Conscience of Europe

(1999, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing), at 89–97. Treaty on the Establishment
of Peace throughout Christendom. Edit. Kejř J., Transl. Dvořák I. In VANĚČEK V., The
Universal Peace Organization of King George of Bohemia a fifteenth Century Plan for
World Peace 1462/1464. Prague: Publishing House of the Czechoslovak Academy of
Sciences 1964, pp. 81–90. Also see Smith (1992).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2022
M. A. Nasir, Off the Target,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88185-6_1
2 M. A. NASIR

Europe which can be achieved through cooperation among states. The

idea of European integration was further pruned by the English philoso-
pher William Penn (founder of the province of Pennsylvania) into the
United States of Europe by the establishment of a European Parliament.2
The reason was to prevent wars and establish peace among Europeans.
However, the seeds of European identity were spread long before the
suggestion of the European Parliament and even the League of Chris-
tian Nations, perhaps this was the historical relationship in the form
of different empires including the Roman and Holy Roman Empires
which resonates in the sub-conscious of Europeans. They cannot run
away from their history. Whether it was a voluntary or forced relation-
ship, the common citizenships and love–hate history have some sort of
Stockholm syndrome effects that some affection and respect for the Euro-
peanism always prevailed in the Europeans blood.3 Hence, after George
of Poděbrady and Willam Penn, Abbot Charles de Saint-Pierre’s proposal
on the creation of the European League of Sovereign States were all the
manifestation of nostalgic past and history of Europeanism written in
blood and sweat.4 In this, we cannot forget to acknowledge Immanuel
Kant’s proposal and sketch for the Perpetual Peace in which there are
interesting and explicitly parallels ideas of mutual respect and coopera-
tion among sovereign states.5 A desire also expressed by Napoleon6 that
the “Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free inter-
nally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of
Europe would become a possibility”. This dream was passed on by other
scholars and philosophers such as Polish Wojciech Jastrz˛ebowski7 and
Italian Giuseppe Mazzini 1843, to French Victor Hugo and who felt

2 “An ESSAY towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe by the Establishment
of an European Dyet, Parliament, or Estates” year 1693.
3 A manifestation of this factor is evident and clearly observable in almost all of the
historical political unions including united India or former soviet states. In the case of
former, despite the hostile relationship and wars between India and Pakistan, both suffer
from the nostalgia of being a one country under different rules.
4 See Hont (2005).
5 See Kant (1795).
6 See Markham (1966), as quoted in Matthew Zarzeczny, Napoleon’s European Union:
The Grand Empire of the United States of Europe (Kent State University Master’s thesis)
visit https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/napoleon/c_unification.html.
7 On About eternal peace between the nations, published 31 May 1831.
 1 WRONG INTENTIONS AND FLAWED FOUNDATIONS 3

no stigma in say that “A day will come when all nations on our conti-
nent will form a European brotherhood … A day will come when we shall
see … the United States of America and the United States of Europe face
to face, reaching out for each other across the seas ”. In fact, to live his
legacy Hugo planted a European Tree called Hugo’s United States of
Europe Oak in Guernsey Island.8 Later Giuseppe Garibaldi, and John
Stuart Mill joined Victor Hugo at a congress of the League of Peace and
Freedom in Geneva. To Mikhail Bakunin reason of putting their weight
to Hugo’s side was “That in order to achieve the triumph of liberty, justice
and peace in the international relations of Europe, and to render civil war
impossible among the various peoples which make up the European family,
only a single course lies open: to constitute the United States of Europe.”9
Hugo’s idea was nurtured and some form of practical proposal in 1885 by
Theodore de Korwin Szymanowski as L’avenir économique, social et poli-
tique en Europe—The Future of Europe in Economic, Political and Social
Terms.10 The proposal provided the blueprints or hints of a parliamentary
system, a customs union, centrally collected statistics, financial contribu-
tions from all the participating European states for deposit and lending via
a central bank with a common currency, for preference, though not neces-
sarily Euro.11 As obvious the proposal did not get much fame, never mind
an influence that could have shaped European relations and prevented the
first world war and its misery. Counterfactual does not exist, so we do not
know if the implementation of the Theodore de Korwin Szymanowski
proposal could have avoided the painful events of the first half of the
twentieth century, but what we know for sure is that the ideas entailed
in the proposal are prima facie evident that the plans of integration post-
WWII and hitherto are not something nobody thought of before. There
is nothing new under the sun!
Mistakes and blunders are often good teachers though can be too
harsh, WWI did teach Europeans something and that was the importance
of cooperation and peace. After WWI the movement of European unity
and cooperation remerged with even more vigour. Austrian Richard von

8 Visit https://www.visitguernsey.com/victor-hugo-garden for Victor Hugo’s garden.

9 See the Anarchist Sociology of Federalism at http://library.nothingness.org/articles/
anar/en/display/334.
10 Szymanowski (1885/8).
11 Szymanowski (1890).
4 M. A. NASIR

Coudenhove-Kalergi hosted the first pan-European conference and also

founded the Pan-Europa moment.12 Similarly, a Pro-European group
“Federal Union” was launched in Britain.13 Nonetheless, it also led to
the proposal on economic integration coming from not merely poets
and philosophers but from the statesmen and politicians. Most promi-
nently, Aristide Briand in the form of a proposal for a new economic
union in Europe in the interwar period.14 Briand made his proposals in a
speech in favour of a European Union in the League of Nations and his
“Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal
Union”.15 The idea was to contain the future threats from Germany
while still endeavouring to avail the settlement of the Treaty of Versailles .
Perhaps, this was the subtle flaw, however as the plan was never imple-
mented this flaw was not apparent or hindered its success. The political
and economic failure to maintain peace led to the success of misery in
the form of WWII. Yet, during the war, there were sentiments of Euro-
peanism even among Nazis. German ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop
and Cecil von Renthe-Fink proposed “European confederacy”. It entailed
the idea of a single currency, a central bank, a regional principle, a labour
policy and economic and trading agreements, however, could not get
Hitler’s approval.16
The first half of the twentieth century with two great wars and a great
depression was so painful that no European ever wanted to have anything
similar for the remaining half of the century, and in fact never again.
In the Post-WWII, the idea of a united Europe became more powerful.
Despite not much in favour of British absorbent and dissolvement in the
European continent, Winston Churchill was also in favour of European
cohesion and put his weight by saying that “We see nothing but good and

12 In its Soviet form Trotsky also proposed the idea of “United States of Europe”.
13 Visit http://federalunion.org.uk/ for details on Federal Union.
14 Navari (1992).
15 At the annual meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations in September
1929, Foreign Minister Aristide Briand of France proposed the establishment of a federal
European union to coordinate economic and political policies. Briand believed that the
proposed union should be created within the framework of the League and promised to
submit a detailed plan for a federal union to the 27 European states that were League
members. Visit https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11583/ for details.
16 See Lipgens (1985).
 1 WRONG INTENTIONS AND FLAWED FOUNDATIONS 5

hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonality”.17 After the

war, Churchill became an even greater vocal of the idea of the Euro-
pean Unit. In his famous speech at the University of Zurich, he strongly
expressed his feelings “We must build a kind of United States of Europe.
In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the
simple joys and hopes which make life worth living ”.18 To some Churchill’s
approach to European integration was cautious, some scholars define the
approaches from a cautious approach (“the unionist position”) to a more
closer Federalists approach (full integration with a constitution).19 While
the view and model of the European integration and coordination may
vary in its design and shape the underlying rationale is embedded in the
European brotherhood. The wars and depressions have just strengthened
and highlighted the need for European unity roots of which are centuries
deep. The idea of European Identity and Integration which led to the
creation of the European Union is not new, it prevailed before and shall
exist with and without European Union, it is in European Blood.

From Fall of the Berlin

to the Rubble of Berlin Wall
In the post-WWII period, it was clear that there should be something
different done than the failed strategy of the interwar period which
led to depression, hyperinflation and further destruction. Concomitantly,
Henry Morgenthau Jr.’s plan to deindustrialise Germany by dismantling
its industrial capacity did not go very far.20 Economic realities led allies
to see the sense, an economically weak Germany was not in the best
interest of anyone including Western Allies.21 James F. Byrnes with his
“Restatement of Policy on Germany” expressed the firm commitment of

17 See Ponting (1996).

18 For Churchill, Winston (19 September 1946). Speech to the Academic Youth.
Zürich, Switzerland. Visit https://archive.is/20100820031147/http://www.europa-web.
de/europa/02wwswww/202histo/churchil.htm.
19 See Dinan (2005).
20 Visit https://web.archive.org/web/20130531235410/http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.
edu/psf/box31/t297a01.html for Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany. The
plan entailed proposal to remove and destroy all the key industries which are important
to military strength. The plain was set out in his booked titled “Germany is Our Problem”.
21 See Petrov (1967).
6 M. A. NASIR

a military presence in the Germany and Potsdam Agreement, but he

also expressed the importance of economic recovery and stabilisation
of Germany.22 This led to first the European Recovery Program that
is commonly known as the Marshall Plan. Restrictions on the German
industrial production were also relaxed or if put more appropriately, they
have to be relaxed. In General Lucius Clay words, “there is no choice
between being a communist on 1,500 cal a day and a believer in democ-
racy on a thousand”.23 However, German exports prices were set below
the international market prices and there were also restrictions on what
Germany can export and how much.24 This also led to a major malnu-
trition and starvation crisis in Germany. It was Allied legal obligation to
feed the occupant Germans,25 but of course, it was a big take. Particu-
larly when you have imposed restrictions on the economy. This was not
all; Germans were yet to pick more bills in coming years and decades to
re-establish their political system and economy. The first was the Ruhr
Agreement which led to establishing the Federal Republic of Germany,
but not due to the benevolence of the French and Allies. The resource-
rich Ruhr region was put under International Authority for the Ruhr.26
The French were allowed to extract the German resources, including from
the Saar region (Saar Protectorate).27 On the other hand, the USA and
UK were rather more interested in intellectual property and “intellectual
reparations ”.28 At the same time, the threat from the Soviet Union or
perceived threat from the Soviet Union, and American wishes29 to estab-
lish a stronger western block led to the change of stance from teaching

22 See Gimbel (1972).

23 For Speech by J.F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State “Restatement of Policy
on Germany” Stuttgart September 6, 1946, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hoffnungs
rede-restatement-policy-germany-speech-hope-francisco-cruz/.
24 Balabkins (1964).
25 Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Rules of Land Warfare.
26 Yoder (1955).
27 Milward (1984). The Saar was returned to Germany in 1957 though French was
allowed to extract resources till very late.
28 Smith (1993). Also see How T-Force abducted Germany’s best brains for
Britain, available at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/aug/29/sciencenews.
secondworldwar and Jacobsen (2014).
29 American Committee on United Europe.
 1 WRONG INTENTIONS AND FLAWED FOUNDATIONS 7

a harsh lesson to Germany and containing and extracting its resources to

contain the immediate threat the Soviet Union.30
The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) which
we now known as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel-
opment (OECD) came into existence in the April 1948 and the Council
of Europe in May 1949 for the legal and human rights aspects.31 In
mid-December 1949, a memorandum was submitted to the Secretariat
of OEEC by the UK which emphasised the importance of the intro-
duction of a new scheme that will govern the future of intra-European
payments.32 There was also an urge from the USA for the establishment
of a European Payment Union so that the aid can be channelled as well
as the trade between the OEEC members can be revived and promoted.
An illustration of this is evident in the cartoon by David Low (Fig. 1.1).
One of the earlier decisions of OEEC (or OECD as we know it)
that it took in July 1950 was to replace the bilateral payment agree-
ments between European countries which were prevailing post-WWII
with a new multilateral system, the European Payment Union (EPU)33
The issue was that the bilateral payments agreement preceded EPU
entailed exchange-rate controls which implied that the payments had to
be made based on fixed official exchange rates. Nonetheless, there were
also modest credit limits, hence, the rationale of EPU was to revitalise
and enhance European trade and economy. The EPU delivered by first
setting exchange rates that were deemed to reflect the reality of each
country’s economic situation and second, facilitating the convertibility of
European currencies. Yet the currency restrictions were maintained vis-
à-vis the dollar area. EPU by its functioning helped to compensate and
balance the accounts of each European country with those of its neigh-
bours. Therefore, it can be perceived as an international clearing house.
Member countries used to set a parity between their currency and the unit

30 Milward (1999).
31 Visit https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/home for details.
32 British memorandum on the future of intra-European payments (15 December
1949), available https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/british_memorandum_on_the_future_of_
intra_european_payments_15_december_1949-en-04f98523-70bc-446c-bae9-5d9194728
66b.html.
33 For details on the European Payments Union, visit https://www.cvce.eu/en/edu
cation/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-d4686a3e68ff/ab473e40-d7d8-
419b-b507-ac6d7a7ffe76.
8 M. A. NASIR

Fig. 1.1 United States’ reaction to the slow negotiations for the establishment
of a European Payments Union (Source Evening Standard. 28.12.1949. London.
“Time, Gentlemen, please!”, auteur: David Low)

of account, which was fixed in grams of gold based on the gold value of
the dollar, as well as a single exchange rate. The EPU also had a settlement
mechanism as the settlement of trade was carried out partly in gold and
partly via the granting of credits to the EPU at the end of each month. In
this regard, it was a very important system and with some good features
that were ignored in the design of the current TARGET2 system. I will
revert to this point later as at this point, we are talking about the 1950s.
The USA subscribed to the initial capital of EPU which was used to settle
with the creditors as soon as the debtors made their payments. The Bank
for International Settlements (BIS) managed the settlement transactions,
and the National Central Banks also made their currency available to their
partners. Each month the balance (credit or debit) for each country was
calculated in relation to all the other countries in the Union. There was
also a quota that was set for each member representing the maximum
amount of its account balance can grow to. On the monthly basis, the
adjustments (partially calculated in gold) were made depending on the
monthly credit or debit balance of the country. As it proved to be up and
 1 WRONG INTENTIONS AND FLAWED FOUNDATIONS 9

running the EPU had been made a bit more flexible. Flexibilities include
the introduction of bank arbitrage procedure, decentralisation and greater
flexibility in the intra-European payment arrangements (Fig. 1.2).
The EPU was successful in delivering the exchange-rate stability and
promoting inter and intra trade among the member states, however, it was
criticised for price fluctuations and not enabling convertibility between
individuals as the convertibility was only limited to the issuing banks. To

Fig. 1.2 Joining the European Payments Union (EPU) (Source Daily Herald.
28.03.1950, n° 10 625. London. “Slightly mixed bathing”, Auteur: David Low.
On 28 March 1950, the British cartoonist, David Low, illustrates the hesitations
of Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary [left], and Hugh Gaitskell, British
Chancellor of the Exchequer [right], at calls from Paul Hoffman, US admin-
istrator of the Economic Cooperation Administration [ECA] given the task of
managing the distribution of funds under the Marshall Plan, for them to join the
future European Payments Union [EPA])
10 M. A. NASIR

some critics, EPU also caused fear of being a competitor to the Inter-
national Monetary Fund (IMF), this led to the replacement of EPU in
December 1958 with the European Monetary Agreement (EMA) which
was signed in August 1955. It also led to the creation of reserve funds for
those states which were running a balance of payment deficit. Nonethe-
less, there was a multilectal settlement and equalisation system which was
based on the exchanges rates which were to large extent kept stable.
Unlike its predecessor, settlements and granting of lands under the EMA
system were not compulsory or automatic. In nutshell, salient features of
the agreement included the features of exchange-rate margins, interim
finance, bilateral payments agreements, balances held in the currency
of other participating countries and monthly settlements. Once again,
the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) was managing the financial
transactions in the EMA.
On the economic front, soon after the creation of OEEC, the
French foreign minister Robert Schuman put forward a plan known as
the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950. In a nutshell, it proposed
the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) whose
members would pool coal and steel production. The logic was that “the
solidarity in production thus established will make it plain that any war
between France and Germany becomes not merely unthinkable, but materi-
ally impossible”.34 Later, with the Treaty of Paris in 1951, Germany had
to agree to the European Coal and Steel Community in exchange of some
economic and political freedom. This also led to the creation of institu-
tions such as the High Authority and the Common Assembly which have
now taken the form of the European Commission and European Parlia-
ment , respectively.35 Reports by the WikiLeaks suggest that there were

34 For the Schuman Declaration—9 May 1950, visit https://europa.eu/european-

union/about-eu/symbols/europe-day/schuman-declaration_en.
35 Jean Monnet who proposed the Monnet Plan became the first President of the High
Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community. Some of the relaxation to Germany
for instance return of Saarland to Western Germany was more a matter of people’s will
than French benevolence as the referendum held on 23 October 1955, the people of the
Saar voted against this European statute, and instead opted for the return of the Saar to
the Federal Republic of Germany from 1 January 1957. For details visit https://www.
cvce.eu/obj/en-26859090-52d0-4850-9019-92748182042a, though the West Germany
would still have to agree to channelisation of the Moselle. In addition to a High Authority
and a Common Assembly, ECSC was composed of a Special Council of national ministers
and a Court of Justice, somewhat similar to Council of the European Union and the
European Court of Justice.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The men return
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The men return

Author: Jack Vance

Illustrator: Robert Engle

Release date: September 4, 2023 [eBook #71565]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc, 1957

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEN

RETURN ***
 THE MEN RETURN

By JACK VANCE

Illustrated by ENGLE

Alpha caught a handful of air, a globe of

blue liquid, a rock, kneaded them together....

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Infinity July 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Only rarely will the Infinity-plus

symbol—INFINITY's award of unusual
merit—appear on an individual story.
(For a typical example of the way it
will be used, see "Tales of Tomorrow"
elsewhere in this issue.) The Men
Return is an exception by virtue of
being one of the most unusual stories
ever written. We do not guarantee that
you will like it, but we are sure that
you will either like it tremendously or
hate it violently. And we're very
anxious to learn your reactions!
The Relict came furtively down the crag, a shambling gaunt creature
with tortured eyes. He moved in a series of quick dashes, using
panels of dark air for concealment, running behind each passing
shadow, at times crawling on all fours, head low to the ground.
Arriving at the final low outcrop of rock, he halted and peered across
the plain.
Far away rose low hills, blurring into the sky, which was mottled and
sallow like poor milk-glass. The intervening plain spread like rotten
velvet, black-green and wrinkled, streaked with ocher and rust. A
fountain of liquid rock jetted high in the air, branched out into black
coral. In the middle distance a family of gray objects evolved with a
sense of purposeful destiny: spheres melted into pyramids, became
domes, tufts of white spires, sky-piercing poles; then, as a final tour
de force, tesseracts.
The Relict cared nothing for this; he needed food and out on the
plain were plants. They would suffice in lieu of anything better. They
grew in the ground, or sometimes on a floating lump of water, or
surrounding a core of hard black gas. There were dank black flaps of
leaf, clumps of haggard thorn, pale green bulbs, stalks with leaves
and contorted flowers. There were no recognizable species, and the
Relict had no means of knowing if the leaves and tendrils he had
eaten yesterday would poison him today.
He tested the surface of the plain with his foot. The glassy surface
(though it likewise seemed a construction of red and gray-green
pyramids) accepted his weight, then suddenly sucked at his leg. In a
frenzy he tore himself free, jumped back, squatted on the temporarily
solid rock.
Hunger rasped at his stomach. He must eat. He contemplated the
plain. Not too far away a pair of Organisms played—sliding, diving,
dancing, striking flamboyant poses. Should they approach he would
try to kill one of them. They resembled men, and so should make a
good meal.
He waited. A long time? A short time? It might have been either;
duration had neither quantitative nor qualitative reality. The sun had
vanished, and there was no standard cycle or recurrence. Time was
a word blank of meaning.

Matters had not always been so. The Relict retained a few tattered
recollections of the old days, before system and logic had been
rendered obsolete. Man had dominated Earth by virtue of a single
assumption: that an effect could be traced to a cause, itself the effect
of a previous cause.
Manipulation of this basic law yielded rich results; there seemed no
need for any other tool or instrumentality. Man congratulated himself
on his generalized structure. He could live on desert, on plain or ice,
in forest or in city; Nature had not shaped him to a special
environment.
He was unaware of his vulnerability. Logic was the special
environment; the brain was the special tool.
Then came the terrible hour when Earth swam into a pocket of non-
causality, and all the ordered tensions of cause-effect dissolved. The
special tool was useless; it had no purchase on reality. From the two
billions of men, only a few survived—the mad. They were now the
Organisms, lords of the era, their discords so exactly equivalent to
the vagaries of the land as to constitute a peculiar wild wisdom. Or
perhaps the disorganized matter of the world, loose from the old
organization, was peculiarly sensitive to psycho-kinesis.
A handful of others, the Relicts, managed to exist, but only through a
delicate set of circumstances. They were the ones most strongly
charged with the old causal dynamic. It persisted sufficiently to
control the metabolism of their bodies, but could extend no further.
They were fast dying out, for sanity provided no leverage against the
environment. Sometimes their own minds sputtered and jangled, and
they would go raving and leaping out across the plain.
The Organisms observed with neither surprise nor curiosity; how
could surprise exist? The mad Relict might pause by an Organism,
and try to duplicate the creature's existence. The Organism ate a
mouthful of plant; so did the Relict. The Organism rubbed his feet
with crushed water; so did the Relict. Presently the Relict would die
of poison or rent bowels or skin lesions, while the Organism relaxed
in the dank black grass. Or the Organism might seek to eat the
Relict; and the Relict would run off in terror, unable to abide any part
of the world—running, bounding, breasting the thick air; eyes wide,
mouth open, calling and gasping until finally he floundered in a pool
of black iron or blundered into a vacuum pocket, to bat around like a
fly in a bottle.
The Relicts now numbered very few. Finn, he who crouched on the
rock overlooking the plain, lived with four others. Two of these were
old men and soon would die. Finn likewise would die unless he
found food.

Out on the plain one of the Organisms, Alpha, sat down, caught a
handful of air, a globe of blue liquid, a rock, kneaded them together,
pulled the mixture like taffy, gave it a great heave. It uncoiled from
his hand like rope. The Relict crouched low. No telling what devilry
would occur to the creature. He and all the rest of them—
unpredictable! The Relict valued their flesh as food; but they also
would eat him if opportunity offered. In the competition he was at a
great disadvantage. Their random acts baffled him. If, seeking to
escape, he ran, the worst terror would begin. The direction he set his
face was seldom the direction the varying frictions of the ground let
him move. But the Organisms were as random and uncommitted as
the environment, and the double set of vagaries sometimes
compounded, sometimes canceled each other. In the latter case the
Organisms might catch him....
It was inexplicable. But then, what was not? The word "explanation"
had no meaning.
They were moving toward him; had they seen him? He flattened
himself against the sullen yellow rock.
The two Organisms paused not far away. He could hear their
sounds, and crouched, sick from conflicting pangs of hunger and
fear.
Alpha sank to his knees, lay flat on his back, arms and legs flung out
at random, addressing the sky in a series of musical cries, sibilants,
guttural groans. It was a personal language he had only now
improvised, but Beta understood him well.
"A vision," cried Alpha, "I see past the sky. I see knots, spinning
circles. They tighten into hard points; they will never come undone."
Beta perched on a pyramid, glanced over this shoulder at the
mottled sky.
"An intuition," chanted Alpha, "a picture out of the other time. It is
hard, merciless, inflexible."
Beta poised on the pyramid, dove through the glassy surface, swam
under Alpha, emerged, lay flat beside him.
"Observe the Relict on the hillside. In his blood is the whole of the
old race—the narrow men with minds like cracks. He has exuded the
intuition. Clumsy thing—a blunderer," said Alpha.
"They are all dead, all of them," said Beta. "Although three or four
remain." (When past, present and future are no more than ideas left
over from another era, like boats on a dry lake—then the completion
of a process can never be defined.)
Alpha said, "This is the vision. I see the Relicts swarming the Earth;
then whisking off to nowhere, like gnats in the wind. This is behind
us."
The Organisms lay quiet, considering the vision.
A rock, or perhaps a meteor, fell from the sky, struck into the surface
of the pond. It left a circular hole which slowly closed. From another
part of the pool a gout of fluid splashed into the air, floated away.
Alpha spoke: "Again—the intuition comes strong! There will be lights
in the sky."
The fever died in him. He hooked a finger into the air, hoisted himself
to his feet.
Beta lay quiet. Slugs, ants, flies, beetles were crawling on him,
boring, breeding. Alpha knew that Beta could arise, shake off the
insects, stride off. But Beta seemed to prefer passivity. That was well
enough. He could produce another Beta should he choose, or a
dozen of him. Sometimes the world swarmed with Organisms, all
sorts, all colors, tall as steeples, short and squat as flower-pots.
"I feel a lack," said Alpha. "I will eat the Relict." He set forth, and
sheer chance brought him near to the ledge of yellow rock. Finn the
Relict sprang to his feet in panic.

Alpha tried to communicate, so that Finn might pause while Alpha

ate. But Finn had no grasp for the many-valued overtones of Alpha's
voice. He seized a rock, hurled it at Alpha. The rock puffed into a
cloud of dust, blew back into the Relict's face.
Alpha moved closer, extended his long arms. The Relict kicked. His
feet went out from under him, and he slid out on the plain. Alpha
ambled complacently behind him. Finn began to crawl away. Alpha
moved off to the right—one direction was as good as another. He
collided with Beta, and began to eat Beta instead of the Relict. The
Relict hesitated; then approached and, joining Alpha, pushed chunks
of pink flesh into his mouth.
Alpha said to the Relict, "I was about to communicate an intuition to
him whom we dine upon. I will speak to you."
Finn could not understand Alpha's personal language. He ate as
rapidly as possible.
Alpha spoke on. "There will be lights in the sky. The great lights."
Finn rose to his feet and, warily watching Alpha, seized Beta's legs,
began to pull him toward the hill. Alpha watched with quizzical
unconcern.
It was hard work for the spindly Relict. Sometimes Beta floated;
sometimes he wafted off on the air; sometimes he adhered to the
terrain. At last he sank into a knob of granite which froze around him.
Finn tried to jerk Beta loose, and then to pry him up with a stick,
without success.
He ran back and forth in an agony of indecision. Beta began to
collapse, wither, like a jellyfish on hot sand. The Relict abandoned
the hulk. Too late, too late! Food going to waste! The world was a
hideous place of frustration!

Temporarily his belly was full. He started back up the crag, and
presently found the camp, where the four other Relicts waited—two
ancient males, two females. The females, Gisa and Reak, like Finn,
had been out foraging. Gisa had brought in a slab of lichen; Reak a
bit of nameless carrion.
The old men, Boad and Tagart, sat quietly waiting either for food or
for death.
The women greeted Finn sullenly. "Where is the food you went forth
to find?"
"I had a whole carcass," said Finn. "I could not carry it."
Boad had slyly stolen the slab of lichen and was cramming it into his
mouth. It came alive, quivered and exuded a red ichor which was
poison, and the old man died.
"Now there is food," said Finn. "Let us eat."
But the poison created a putrescence; the body seethed with blue
foam, flowed away of its own energy.
The women turned to look at the other old man, who said in a
quavering voice, "Eat me if you must—but why not choose Reak,
who is younger than I?"
Reak, the younger of the women, gnawing on the bit of carrion,
made no reply.
Finn said hollowly, "Why do we worry ourselves? Food is ever more
difficult, and we are the last of all men."
"No, no," spoke Reak. "Not the last. We saw others on the green
mound."
"That was long ago," said Gisa. "Now they are surely dead."
"Perhaps they have found a source of food," suggested Reak.
Finn rose to his feet, looked across the plain. "Who knows? Perhaps
there is a more pleasant land beyond the horizon."
"There is nothing anywhere but waste and evil creatures," snapped
Gisa.
"What could be worse than here?" Finn argued calmly.
No one could find grounds for disagreement.
"Here is what I propose," said Finn. "Notice this tall peak. Notice the
layers of hard air. They bump into the peak, they bounce off, they
float in and out and disappear past the edge of sight. Let us all climb
this peak, and when a sufficiently large bank of air passes, we will
throw ourselves on top, and allow it to carry us to the beautiful
regions which may exist just out of sight."
There was argument. The old man Tagart protested his feebleness;
the women derided the possibility of the bountiful regions Finn
envisioned, but presently, grumbling and arguing, they began to
clamber up the pinnacle.

It took a long time; the obsidian was soft as jelly, and Tagart several
times professed himself at the limit of his endurance. But still they
climbed, and at last reached the pinnacle. There was barely room to
stand. They could see in all directions, far out over the landscape, till
vision was lost in the watery gray.
The women bickered and pointed in various directions, but there was
small sign of happier territory. In one direction blue-green hills
shivered like bladders full of oil. In another direction lay a streak of
black—a gorge or a lake of clay. In another direction were blue-
green hills—the same they had seen in the first direction; somehow
there had been a shift. Below was the plain, gleaming like an
iridescent beetle, here and there pocked with black velvet spots,
overgrown with questionable vegetation.
They saw Organisms, a dozen shapes loitering by ponds, munching
vegetable pods or small rocks or insects. There came Alpha. He
moved slowly, still awed by his vision, ignoring the other Organisms.
Their play went on, but presently they stood quiet, sharing the
oppression.
On the obsidian peak, Finn caught hold of a passing filament of air,
drew it in. "Now—all on, and we sail away to the Land of Plenty."
"No," protested Gisa, "there is no room, and who knows if it will fly in
the right direction?"
"Where is the right direction?" asked Finn. "Does anyone know?"
No one knew, but the women still refused to climb aboard the
filament. Finn turned to Tagart. "Here, old one, show these women
how it is; climb on!"
"No, no," he cried. "I fear the air; this is not for me."
"Climb on, old man, then we follow."
Wheezing and fearful, clenching his hands deep into the spongy
mass, Tagart pulled himself out onto the air, spindly shanks hanging
over into nothing. "Now," spoke Finn, "who next?"
The women still refused. "You go then, yourself," cried Gisa.
"And leave you, my last guarantee against hunger? Aboard now!"
"No. The air is too small; let the old one go and we will follow on a
larger."
"Very well." Finn released his grip. The air floated off over the plain,
Tagart straddling and clutching for dear life.
They watched him curiously. "Observe," said Finn, "how fast and
easily moves the air. Above the Organisms, over all the slime and
uncertainty."
But the air itself was uncertain, and the old man's raft dissolved.
Clutching at the departing wisps, Tagart sought to hold his cushion
together. It fled from under him, and he fell.

On the peak the three watched the spindly shape flap and twist on its
way to earth far below.
"Now," Reak exclaimed vexatiously, "we even have no more meat."
"None," said Gisa, "except the visionary Finn himself."
They surveyed Finn. Together they would more than outmatch him.
"Careful," cried Finn. "I am the last of the Men. You are my women,
subject to my orders."
They ignored him, muttering to each other, looking at him from the
side of their faces. "Careful!" cried Finn. "I will throw you both from
this peak."
"That is what we plan for you," said Gisa.
They advanced with sinister caution.
"Stop! I am the last Man!"
"We are better off without you."
"One moment! Look at the Organisms!"
The women looked. The Organisms stood in a knot, staring at the
sky.
"Look at the sky!"
The women looked; the frosted glass was cracking, breaking, curling
aside.
"The blue! The blue sky of old times!"
A terribly bright light burnt down, seared their eyes. The rays
warmed their naked backs.
"The sun," they said in awed voices. "The sun has come back to
Earth."
The shrouded sky was gone; the sun rode proud and bright in a sea
of blue. The ground below churned, cracked, heaved, solidified.
They felt the obsidian harden under their feet; its color shifted to
glossy black. The Earth, the sun, the galaxy, had departed the region
of freedom; the other time with its restrictions and logic was once
more with them.
"This is Old Earth," cried Finn. "We are Men of Old Earth! The land is
once again ours!"
"And what of the Organisms?"
"If this is the Earth of old, then let the Organisms beware!"
The Organisms stood on a low rise of ground beside a runnel of
water that was rapidly becoming a river flowing out onto the plain.
Alpha cried, "Here is my intuition! It is exactly as I knew. The
freedom is gone; the tightness, the constriction are back!"
"How will we defeat it?" asked another Organism.
"Easily," said a third. "Each must fight a part of the battle. I plan to
hurl myself at the sun, and blot it from existence." And he crouched,
threw himself into the air. He fell on his back and broke his neck.
"The fault," said Alpha, "is in the air; because the air surrounds all
things."
Six Organisms ran off in search of air and, stumbling into the river,
drowned.
"In any event," said Alpha, "I am hungry." He looked around for
suitable food. He seized an insect which stung him. He dropped it.
"My hunger remains."
He spied Finn and the two women descending from the crag. "I will
eat one of the Relicts," he said. "Come, let us all eat."
Three of them started off—as usual in random directions. By chance
Alpha came face to face with Finn. He prepared to eat, but Finn
picked up a rock. The rock remained a rock, hard, sharp, heavy. Finn
swung it down, taking joy in the inertia. Alpha died with a crushed
skull. One of the other Organisms attempted to step across a
crevasse twenty feet wide and disappeared into it; the other sat
down, swallowed rocks to assuage his hunger, and presently went
into convulsions.
Finn pointed here and there around the fresh new land. "In that
quarter, the new city, like that of the legends. Over here the farms,
the cattle."
"We have none of these," protested Gisa.
"No," said Finn. "Not now. But once more the sun rises and sets,
once more rock has weight and air has none. Once more water falls
as rain and flows to the sea." He stepped forward over the fallen
Organism. "Let us make plans."
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