Long Haul LedgerA Hiqualody project Open the dashboard

Sources

Shake It Like a Salt Shaker

Full source list with notes, October 2026.

Welcome to Long Haul Ledger. If you clicked through to the sources, you are our kind of reader. Long Haul Ledger is a free tool for tracking economic activity at every scale, from the whole world down to your city: who is building what, where, and what it means for the cost of living.

Below are the 57 sources behind the explainer on post-abundance deflation, with a note on what each one supports and a link to every original.

Sources

  1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Consumer Expenditures 2024," news release USDL-25-1586, December 19, 2025. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.nr0.htm (total spending, income, all category amounts and shares, gasoline, vehicle insurance, vehicle purchases, rent, 3.3% housing increase)
  2. USDA Economic Research Service, "Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials, Food Prices and Spending," updated June 1, 2026. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending (9.7% vs 10.4% food share, 4.8% vs 6.1% groceries, food dollar shares, 2024 to 2025 price growth for housing, medical care, food, transportation)
  3. BloombergNEF, "Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices Fall to $108 Per Kilowatt-Hour," December 9, 2025. https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-transport/lithium-ion-battery-pack-prices-fall-to-108-per-kilowatt-hour-despite-rising-metal-prices-bloombergnef/ and https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-transport/new-record-lows-for-battery-prices/ (93% decline since 2010)
  4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, "Long-term price trends for computers, TVs, and related items," 2015. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/long-term-price-trends-for-computers-tvs-and-related-items.htm (94% and 96%)
  5. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition (1885), "Pepper," via Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica,_Ninth_Edition/Pepper (Alaric's 408 ransom of 3,000 pounds of pepper, high medieval price driving the Portuguese sea route, considerable price fall after 1498, cultivation spreading)
  6. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 edition, "Gabelle," via Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Gabelle (one of the most hated taxes, imposed 1286, abolished 1790)
  7. National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central, "The History and Politics of Salt," 2021. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8099335/ (Gandhi's 1930 march, 25 days, breaking British salt law, start of the independence movement)
  8. Library of Congress, "Ford Implements the Moving Assembly Line," This Month in Business History. https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/October/Ford (Model T $850 in 1908, $260 in 1924, October 1913 moving assembly line)
  9. Ford Motor Company press release, "A Short History of the Model T Automobile," archived October 1, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081001153737/http:/media.ford.com/newsroom/release_display.cfm?release=860 (chassis assembly from 12 hours 8 minutes to 1 hour 33 minutes; Runabout at $260 by October 1924)
  10. Journal of Economic History, "The Model T," Cambridge University Press, 2025. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A783993184F1741EDC6F6A76B9D6D98D/S0022050725000014a.pdf/model_t.pdf (Chevrolet roughly matching Ford's unit costs by 1926 or 1927, citing Raff 1991)
  11. Pittsburgh History and Landmarks, "Edgar Thomson Works," via pghbridges.org. https://pghbridges.org/articles/places/edgarthomsonworks_un.htm (first rails September 1875; steel rail prices $120 per ton in 1873, $70 in 1875, $42 in 1878; mill improvements to stay below falling prices)
  12. Henretta et al., America's History, 8th edition, chapter 26, Macmillan. https://digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/henretta8e/henretta8e_ch26_17.html (Levitt mass production, $7,990 in 1947 with kitchen appliances, dozens of other developers following; corroborated by Time, "Housing: Up from the Potato Fields," July 3, 1950, https://time.com/archive/6615096/housing-up-from-the-potato-fields/ ($7,990 with refrigerator, stove and washer))
  13. University of Houston, Digital History. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=3427&smtID=2 (26 separate steps)
  14. American Heritage, "The Buy of the Century," July/August 1993. https://www.americanheritage.com/buy-century (a house every 15 minutes at peak; techniques copied by builders nationwide)
  15. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Econ Focus, "The Voyage to Containerization," 2012. https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/RichmondFedOrg/publications/research/econ_focus/2012/q2-3/pdf/economic_history.pdf ($5.83 per ton conventional loading, 15.8 cents per ton for the Ideal X, April 26, 1956, "a truck on water")
  16. SpaceX, "ORBCOMM-2 Mission," December 21, 2015. https://www.spacex.com/launches/orbcomm2 (first recovery of an orbital class rocket, December 21, 2015)
  17. NASA Technical Reports Server, Jones, "The Recent Large Reduction in Space Launch Cost," International Conference on Environmental Systems, July 8, 2018. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20200001093 (Shuttle about $54,500 per kilogram, Falcon 9 about $2,720 per kilogram to low Earth orbit, a factor of 20)
  18. CNN, "Starship flight 5: SpaceX achieves chopstick landing," October 13, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/13/science/spacex-starship-test-flight-5-launch (Super Heavy booster caught by launch tower)
  19. Twitter, Inc., Form 8-K, filed October 27, 2022. https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001418091/84881052-8f1d-4857-bda8-2fdb55ebce68.pdf (merger completed October 27, 2022)
  20. Reuters, "Musk begins his Twitter ownership with firings, declares the 'bird is freed'," October 28, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/elon-musk-completes-44-bln-acquisition-twitter-2022-10-28/ ($44 billion; "The bird is freed")
  21. CNBC, "Elon Musk rebrands Twitter to 'X,' replaces iconic bird logo," July 24, 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/24/elon-musk-rebrands-twitter-to-x-replaces-iconic-bird-logo.html
  22. Business Insider, "The 20 employers engineering students most want to work for" (Universum 2022), August 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/employers-engineering-students-most-want-to-work-for-universum-2022-8 (SpaceX and Tesla first and second in 2022 and the prior year)
  23. CNBC, "Elon Musk says he is sleeping on Tesla factory floor to save time," April 11, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/2018/04/11/elon-musk-says-he-is-sleeping-on-tesla-factory-floor-to-save-time.html (sleeping on the factory floor during Model 3 production; hardship while the CEO is on vacation quote)
  24. Bloomberg Businessweek, "How Tesla's Model 3 Became Elon Musk's Version of Hell," July 12, 2018. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-12/how-tesla-s-model-3-became-elon-musk-s-version-of-hell (camping at the Fremont factory)
  25. Business Insider, "Elon Musk Kept a California House, Rents It Out for 'Events'," June 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-texas-california-house-rent-bay-boca-raton-mars-2021-6 (sold all other houses; rents main home in Boca Chica from SpaceX, worth about $50,000)
  26. KUT Radio, Austin's NPR station, "Texas is debating whether to give Elon Musk control over a public beach," April 11, 2025. https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-04-11/elon-musk-texas-starbase-spacex-launch-election-boca-chica-beach (Airstream trailers where SpaceX employees live; Musk's modest home in Boca Chica Village)
  27. Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Ukraine: The famine of 1932 to 1933," archived May 18, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080518221101/http:/www.britannica.com/eb/article-275913/Ukraine (six to eight million Soviet deaths, four to five million Ukrainians; impossible quotas, home searches and confiscation; August 1932 law making theft of socialist property a capital crime; firing squad for a sack of wheat; more than a million tons of grain exported)
  28. Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Famine of 1932," archived June 8, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080608025056/http:/www.britannica.com/eb/topic-415583/Famine-of-1932 (dekulakization terror of 1930 to 1932 preceding the famine)
  29. Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Great Leap Forward," archived February 12, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250212233932/https:/www.britannica.com/event/Great-Leap-Forward (about 20 million starvation deaths, 1959 to 1962; communes and diversion of farm labor)
  30. Oxford Bibliographies, "The Great Leap Forward and the Famine." https://academic.oup.com/reference/62338/reference-article/554184195 (15 to 45 million deaths, 1959 to 1962)
  31. UNHCR, "Venezuela situation," updated December 2025. https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/venezuela-situation (nearly 7.9 million people have left Venezuela)
  32. Newsday, "Long Island Divided: Housing discrimination on Long Island: How did we get here?" https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-discrimination-history/ (Levittown covenant limiting occupancy to members of the Caucasian race, 1947; covenants unenforceable 1948; clause dropped 1949 but Levitt continued to accept only white families; supports "questionable sales practices")
  33. Eurostat, "Government revenue, expenditure and main aggregates" (gov_10a_main), 2025 data, as tabulated by Insee, "Dépenses des administrations publiques dans l'Union européenne" (Eurostat extraction June 17, 2026). https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2381406 (France 57.2% of GDP in 2025, Finland 57.7%, EU27 average 49.5%)
  34. Insee, "Dépenses et recettes publiques," French national accounts, 1960 to 2025. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2381414 (France general government spending 35.8% of GDP in 1960, 61.7% in 2020, 57.3% in 2025)
  35. franceinfo, "La mobilisation du 17 octobre a rassemblé 800 000 personnes dans toute la France selon les organisateurs et 550 000 d'après le ministre de l'Intérieur," October 17, 2026. https://www.franceinfo.fr/economie/greve/mobilisation-du-17-octobre-800-000-personnes-ont-manifeste-dans-toute-la-france-selon-les-organisateurs-550-000-selon-le-ministre-de-l-interieur_8242081.html (550,000 marchers according to the interior ministry, 800,000 according to organizers; the interior minister denounced "scènes de pillage" in many cities)
  36. franceinfo, "Près de 410 000 personnes ont manifesté en France le samedi 24 octobre d'après le ministère de l'Intérieur, 800 000 selon la CGT," October 24, 2026. https://www.franceinfo.fr/societe/manifestations/pres-de-410-000-personnes-ont-manifeste-en-france-d-apres-le-ministere-de-l-interieur-800-000-selon-la-cgt-des-tensions-dans-plusieurs-grandes-villes_8252440.html (about 410,000 marchers nationwide, about 110,000 in Paris against the cost of living, clashes in several large cities)
  37. Associated Press, coverage of the France protests and unrest in Paris, October 2026. https://apnews.com/article/france-protests-paris-unrest-ad2fb9206e72e5d1b4ae43fdf7aa96a9
  38. ICON, "Wolf Ranch: 3D-Printed Homes in Georgetown, TX." https://www.iconbuild.com/projects/wolf-ranch and CNBC, "Inside the world's largest 3D printed housing development," March 12, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/12/inside-the-worlds-largest-3d-printed-housing-development.html (100 home 3D printed community with Lennar, completed)
  39. IMA Network, "The Factory Came to the House: America's First Mobile Micro-Factory." https://imanetwork.org/the-factory-came-to-the-house-americas-first-mobile-micro-factory/ and Cuby, "About Us." https://cubytechnologies.com/about-us (containerized mobile micro factory; first U.S. home completed in Michigan, 2026)
  40. Realtor.com, "SpaceX Alum Says His 'Lego' Approach Can Solve the Housing Crisis." https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/riley-meik-american-housing-corporation-austin-spacex-homebuilder/ (American Housing Corporation, Austin factory, flat packed row home components assembled on site in days)
  41. Reuters, "New York City freezes rents for one million apartments in Mayor Mamdani victory," June 26, 2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-city-freezes-rents-one-million-apartments-mayor-mamdani-victory-2026-06-26/ and NYC Mayor's Office statement, June 25, 2026. https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/06/mayor-mamdani-s-statement-on-the-rent-guidelines-board-s-final-v
  42. Matthews, "Austin Multifamily Market Report Q2 2026." https://www.matthews.com/insights/austin-tx-multifamily-q2-2026 (32,089 units completed in 2024) and Northmarq, "Austin Market Insights Q2 2026." https://www.northmarq.com/sites/default/files/docs/NMMarketInsights-Q22026-Austin.pdf (12 consecutive quarters of rent declines beginning in 2023)
  43. North America's Building Trades Unions, "North America's Building Trades Unions Announce Data Center Agreement," April 20, 2026. https://nabtu.org/press_releases/north-americas-building-trades-unions-announce-data-center-agreement/ (Stargate Michigan, more than 2,500 tradespeople)
  44. North America's Building Trades Unions, "NABTU and OpenAI Join Forces to Train the Next Generation of Skilled Construction Workers," March 11, 2026. https://nabtu.org/press_releases/nabtu-openai-join-forces-to-train-the-next-generation-of-skilled-construction-workers/ (more than 3 million members); "NABTU and Meta Announce New Partnership." https://nabtu.org/press_releases/nabtu-and-meta-announce-new-partnership/ ; "NABTU, BlackRock, and AI Infrastructure Partnership Launch Strategic Collaboration," August 10, 2026. https://nabtu.org/press_releases/blackrockpartnershipaip/
  45. Fortune, "Elon Musk, the world's richest man, says he's living in an Airstream trailer while xAI expands," September 15, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/09/15/elon-musk-airstream-trailer-memphis-xai-colossus-data-center-sleeping-factory-floor-twitter-tesla-production-hell/ (Airstream "palace" in Memphis; Shotwell quote) and Jalopnik, "Elon Musk Doesn't 'Live' In An Airstream Trailer." https://www.jalopnik.com/2261929/elon-musk-doesnt-live-in-an-airstream-trailer/ (stays a night or two at a time); Reuters, "Musk says he will rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI," October 4, 2026. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/musk-says-he-will-rename-spacexai-spacexsi-2026-10-04/ and Tesla North, "SpaceXAI's X Account Is Now SpaceXSI," October 10, 2026. https://teslanorth.com/2026/10/10/spacexai-spacexsi-x-rename/ (xAI became SpaceXAI in July 2026, then SpaceXSI in October 2026)
  46. Vox, "Amazon's Jeff Bezos creates Fellowship Ventures for $10 billion climate change strategy," August 7, 2020. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/7/21356389/jeff-bezos-fellowship-ventures-earth-fund-climate-change (Bezos's customary toast, "To adventure and fellowship!", discussed in his 2017 Summit interview with his brother Mark Bezos)
  47. All-In Podcast on X, chart shown with David Friedberg, "France's Crisis Is a Warning for America," October 24, 2026. https://x.com/theallinpod/status/2114024116504220057 (chart credited to @michaelaarouet and Rand Group Research)
  48. International Monetary Fund, Public Finances in Modern History database, government expenditure (% of GDP). https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/exp@FPP (Romania 1979: 42.0%; Poland 1979: 35.6%; Venezuela 2012: 38.0%; China 2023: 32.7%)
  49. USSR Ministry of Finance state budget data, 1989, as compiled at su90.ru, "Государственный бюджет СССР." https://su90.ru/budget.html (1989 state budget spending 482.6 billion rubles, 49.5% of GDP)
  50. All-In Podcast on X, "Chamath: France Won't Fix Itself. The Bond Market Must Force Its Hand," October 25, 2026. https://x.com/theallinpod/status/2114318644347904087
  51. All-In Podcast episode transcript, "AI Cyber Panic, Ken Griffin's Bubble Warning, The Fall of France," October 23, 2026, at 1:26:48. https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/all-in-with-chamath-jason-sacks-friedberg/ai-cyber-panic-ken-griffin-s-bubble-warning-the-fall-of-france
  52. Elon Musk on X, "the bird is freed," October 27, 2022 (8:49 PM Pacific time). https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1585841080431321088
  53. Honestly with Bari Weiss, The Free Press, "Marc Andreessen on AI, Tech, Censorship, and Dining with Trump," December 10, 2024. https://www.thefp.com/p/marc-andreessen-on-ai-tech-censorship-trump-democrats (May 2024 meetings in Washington with Biden administration officials; clip quoted in the Capitalisn't transcript, "Can AI Even Be Regulated?", https://capitalisnt.com/episodes/can-ai-even-be-regulated-feat-sendhil-mullainathan-6URLZ3pl/transcript, supports "Don't do AI startups. Don't fund AI startups" and "a game of two or three big companies working closely with the government")
  54. The Joe Rogan Experience #2234, "Marc Andreessen," November 26, 2024, transcript. https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/the-joe-rogan-experience/2234-marc-andreessen
  55. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys, "2024, All Consumer Units: Expenditures," as tabulated by FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, updated December 19, 2025. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?eid=1198038&rid=479 (electricity $1,833 in 2024)
  56. International Renewable Energy Agency, "Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024," July 2025. https://www.irena.org/Publications/2025/Jun/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2024 (utility scale solar LCOE down 90% from 2010 to 2024, from $0.417 to $0.043 per kilowatt hour; battery storage costs down 93%, 2010 to 2024)
  57. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2024," news release, April 2, 2025, Table 1. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ocwage_04022025.pdf (median hourly wage, all occupations, $23.80)

Calculations

Calculated from sources 1, 55 and 57: "Everything else" ($9,179, 11.7%) is the remainder of total spending; the three-category total ($49,753, 63.4%) sums the published figures; family budget savings apply a 50% scenario cut to published 2024 averages (sources 1 and 55); hours of work divide savings by the $23.80 median hourly wage (source 57).

Keep exploring

Thank you for digging this deep. Here is where to go next: