The tragedy of tariffs

Back in 2007 in New York at the big American Booksellers Association meeting, I challenged the might of Google in a quixotic and childish act of near larceny. You can read about it here. Of course it did not force Google to abandon its attempt to digitise the whole of the world’s literature with no regard for authors’ legitimate copyright arguments – but they eventually stopped trying, and the Google Library Project now focuses quite properly on the preservation and dissemination of out-of-copyright books.

Google is a pretty formidable opponent but yesterday I was forced to respond to an even greater foe, POTUS: the President of the United States of America. His application of tariffs on all imported goods sold in the US has had a huge impact with global stock markets, including Wall Street, suffering major declines. There have been, and will be, at least two further impacts – decline in the value of the US dollar against other currencies and imported inflation for the mass of people in the US.

I am not here to challenge the president’s decisions but I am here to protect the incomes of the authors I represent on my publishing list. I do not claim that their royalty income is significant and yet most of them live in the United Kingdom with their costs being paid in pounds sterling, not in devalued US dollars.

I understand the president’s desire for reciprocity. He might have understood it better had he consulted Ben Fenton’s To Be Fair (or indeed any book). Fenton begins his chapter on "Fairness in Politics and Government" with "Fairness is the business of government" and then quotes former president Barack Obama: "We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."

Perhaps, like the Google Library project, POTUS (or more likely his more sensible advisers) might begin to understand the damage he has wrought on his own country as well as the whole world.

After a more-than-cursory analysis I have concluded that the US policies of currency depreciation, defunding of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), attempted elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the imposition of fines on Columbia and other universities, the dismantling of the Department of Education (DOE), and much else are not fair and, specifically, have created a potential loss of 20% of authors’ earnings from US sales.

Reluctantly, I have been forced to raise the prices of all Mensch titles in the US. A 20% increase would clearly damage unit sales significantly and thus I have restricted myself to an average 10% increase across the range. These increases will have immediate effect. Prices in all other territories, including Canada, China, Australia, Mexico, the EU and the UK, have been frozen.

I realise that these actions could be regarded as childish and ineffective but we can only do what is in our power to do. Perhaps, like the Google Library project, POTUS (or more likely his more sensible advisers) might begin to understand the damage he has wrought on his own country as well as the whole world. I passionately support the US and the principles of the Free World. The only winner here will be the ever-patient China. The losers will be scientists, educators, charities, humanitarian organisations, our environment and, of course, several billion citizens of the world.