I have just been notified that current prices are going up on Aug.1 on the quality Huron Mocassins I sell on EBay.

The moosehide moccasins have been the same price for several years but recent costs of materials and shipping is causing a major price spike and we aren't sure yet were it is going to level off. I am concerned because it may mean  eventually the end of genuine high quality Indian made product in the market place. The Huron-Wendats have been making mocassins and snow shoes for market and trading since1859.

Don't get me wrong they have not indicated they are going out of business and I think that is the farthest thing from their mind at this point but I don't know how long they can compete in a marketplace where as long as something looks genuine it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if people think it is made by American or Canadian Indians and it is actually made in third world countries or China . I have heard rumors that another company recently went out of business who made Indian moccasins and had Indian employees in the work force who loved their jobs.Meanwhile the multinational off shore Company MINNETONKA with their FAKE reproductions are doing extremely well ! If you don't belive me look at their stock!

With the wholesale price going up I really don't know how long I can continue to sell this fine Huron Indian product.Actually selling moccasins on the road and on EBay is an economic marker for the real  basic economic condition of the country.I remember the good old days when I would set up in a small town at a poWWow or Rodeo,or fair or something and people had plenty of cash in their pockets to buy the best moosehides. I could pull over at any roadside and sell $200.---$500. worth any day. Man that was fun!

Then one November during the Presidential election  I was set up in a mall in Columbus Ohio with other vendors for the Holiday Season,the ballots got hung up in Florida  people became fearful and mistrusting of what was afoot and absolutely quit spending. The chads got hung up in the ballots and the cash got hung up in peoples pockets and hardly any one bought anything for that whole month of November we barely made the mall rent in the days leading to the Christmas Holidays and that was the beginning of the long slide for the little guy. It wasn't long before I started getting more personal checks instead of cash, then people began to say could you hold that check until?Soon after came the plastic and I refused the credit cards because they were a pain in the neck with the nightly reporting system.Soon people were saying I just don't have it man,I lost my job,the company downsized.The company moved to Mexico.TheCompany..........................yata,yata,yata!

I don't know where the economy is going but I perdict if the Federal Reserve raises the interests rates one more time in August,I think we are heading right for the bottom! (UPDATE : THEY WERE SMART ENOUGH TO NOT DO THAT.)

There is a home foreclosure web site where you can find homes that people have lost. You just type in your zip code and it tells and shows you what is available. It is a buyers market for those with cash in their pockets. My neice has a company that closes,cleans,prepares forclosed property for resale.She had 144 houses waiting for her services in the Detroit area last week.I really wonder where those poor folks are now? Living in a car someplace? By the way one of those houses was a $750,000.00 summer home in Traverse City,Michigan.

I typed a zip code for Columbus Ohio in the search engine and 7,165 homes were listed and the majority were homes where folks gave up and filed bankruptcy.  You type in your own zip code in that search engine and you will be surprized how many are listed near you! At the past few poWWows ,gun shows and  other events people actually apologized because they didn't have enough money for a pair of mocassins.Most of them said their money was going into the gas tank so they could get to work on Monday morning.Several said they had lost their job or changed jobs because of downsizing. The most telling of all, at a recent Pro Gun show in Columbus Ohio there were 5 individual arrests for thefts of automatic hand guns right off the dealer tables, and one of the thieves had a pocket full of counterfeit twenty dollar bills and had to be held for the U.S.Treasury Agents! I suspect that these folks have learned the basic rules for survival at the street level. The Katrina disaster showed us how the society can breakdown when all the rules change! Overnight!
We also saw how ill prepared all the programs and leadership were at meeting the emergency challange in New Orleans.
The police even resorted to shooting the homeless, the hungry and their pets. I'll never forget that video of those guys riding around in a pick up truck making a sport of shooting those dogs,people's pets who were just hungry and looking for food  too.It was like something out of one of those End of The World movies.
All of this tells me something is drastically wrong in this Country! Something is wrong with a Congress who votes for high interest rates and laws to force working people below the poverty line while they fill their own pockets with cash and booty of inside deals! Even resorting to putting money in their food freezers. Remember these are folks who do not pay Social Security because they get the same salery they are getting now and forever when they retire.Something is also drastically wrong when a FAKE product can sell better than a high quality product that has been made,fair traded, and sold for over a 100 years.Something is seriously wrong when so many people lose their jobs,autos,and homes in geometric proportions. I wonder when the adverage guy in the street is going to wake up?
Unless someone in Domestic Policy wakes up I expect this economy to bottom out before September.The long slide is heading to the bottom.The economic melt down is as great and as fast as the Global warming meltdown and the majority of people are frightened and in denial until thie own money resources are cut off ! Perhaps until the family next door moves their belongings into the car and pulls out of the drive.

Thanks for reading my ramblings,may each of you be well,happy and healthy and at least with a pair of comfy feet when everything bottoms out. I know most of these words are not good for business or sales but I can't lie or tell you everything is fine when it really isn't! Business is really only fine for the Oil Man in CoWBOy Boots !!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless You,

Sincerely,

Woody