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Robert Bigg

@robertbigg.bsky.social
995 followers 448 following 400 posts

History of Economics; Information Systems &c. Still looking through post-Keynesian tinted glasses: we have been seduced by the maths not convinced by the poets. Currently working on Alvin Hansen, Sidney Alexander, & Theodor Gregory. rbigg.github.io

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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It was a more common view before the 1930s that there was some dynamic benefit of the shakeout from a depression. A catharsis that was ultimately beneficial. The experience of the Great Depression largely convinced people otherwise. But like many other old ideas they manage ti find new expressions!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A whole new Treasury View!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
With demand-side changes from pension funds reassessing their demand for long term bonds & higher private sector demand for AI buildout it’s little surprise that bond rates are generally rising with inflationary pressure. There are more explanations than bond markets just punishing governments.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
You might get lucky and find it does actually install 27 - happened to me on one device
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Even more bizarrely what started off as an erroneous 26.7 update appears to have installed 27 as requested…. probably one of the worst upgrade experiences in recent years
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Currently the iOS update gives you 26.7 even when you didn’t request it … tvOS and macOS seem to be behaving as one might expect.. from 26.7 it then offers 27 and so far seems OK
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It works for me to update 26.7 and then 27 … though it’s still downloading so who knows!!
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Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche @cleocz.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
We are very happy to launch the *Cambridge Elements in History of Economics series* The 1st Element *The Mathematisation of Economics* by Marcel Boumans is freely available online until 18 September! www.cambridge.org/core/publica...
cambridge.org
History of Economics
Welcome to Cambridge Core
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“For a gov’t borrowing in its own currency, the…domestic constraint is the availability of productive resources & the possibility of inflation, not an arbitrary debt-to-GDP ratio…What refuses to die is the belief that prosperity can be restored by governments spending less. The zombie is austerity!”
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
In many ways an echo of the old burden on future generations story of government debt rebuffed since before the 1930s by pointing out it’s actually a transfer/redistribution issue
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I hadn’t realised that the 3hr single essay paper went that far back. It continued well into the 1970s and probably the 80s before being dropped.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Exactly, even with ‘do not track’ turned on the ads on other sites continue to reflect my recent Amazon searches - not sure they need that much more help!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I was getting through several boxes of tissues in one day (hay fever) and a box of chocolates would last a little over half a mile from the shop which didn’t make for a great post exam gift!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Whilst I well remember the summer of ‘76 it didn’t seem anywhere near as prolonged as this. Though memory fades of course!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Congratulations - you provide an invaluable online resource, thank you!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
More tinges of something like green than we have here which is mainly yellow.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
For some reason those long multiple choice A level questions are seared in my memory as much as some of excessively long stats exams and the 3hr single essay paper in finals!!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Definitely not a soft option, but, at least for us, no particular teaching towards it (there was a timetabled “humane studies” across a range of topics). I remember two very long papers a mixture of multiple choice and essays. However, the multiple choice was often A to K or M for possible answers!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
But the General Studies A level was much easier if you had the option on economics essay questions in both parts as I recall.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Coase has a lot to answer for by providing a theoretical solution that diverted attention from the more fundamental issues on market failures
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
It seems that every age has to debunk the same economic fallacies…
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
And, more historically, pump-priming - sad how these failed analogies never seem to die!
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Was wondering what happened to this. If I remember correctly I put in a claim for three books. I’m sure others here put in claims of their own.
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Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I disagree with 'most importantly, inflation is caused by the balance between supply and demand' other than in the most trivial sense. Inflation is caused by incompatible claims on output leading to increases in nominal wages and prices and/or by shifts in the terms of trade or exchange rates.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Many congratulations!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I recall a job interview written question on “Should the Government pick winners?” In the early 80s, it was still an issue however remote the possibility!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Also highlights: “Public debt did not merely finance government expenditure. It created safe financial assets… the state did not simply borrow pre-existing private savings. It created the institutional framework within which public liabilities became private wealth and financial markets deepened.”
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Excellent by @nakedkeynes.bsky.social on the role of the Fiscal-Naval State in UK economic development. open.substack.com/pub/nakedkey...
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Trinity Bridge with the punts please, very autumnal with a sense of preparing for winter
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
King’s wildflower meadow harvest please (though the punt is very striking as a second choice)
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
King’s Singers please
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
More importantly @pkrugman.bsky.social has a concern not about testing but about learning. “There is growing concern (as well as evidence) that students’ use of AI damages their capacity to learn. And what we really mean by learning is the ability to think.”
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
So AI perversely brings back (hand)written exams. I am reminded of those who played table football before exams not just for relaxation but also to strengthen their wrists to write all the faster. open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
open.substack.com
What Will AI Do To Our Minds?
Cognitive damage, not productivity gains, may be the most important consequence
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
It all comes round eventually- though I still need to be waiting a whole lot longer for sports jackets
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Great to see a new version of Soulver, one of my goto apps on mobile and Mac desktop. Thankfully still subscription free! soulver.app
soulver.app
Soulver — Notepad, meet calculator
A natural-language notepad calculator for Mac, iPad & iPhone. One-time purchase, 60-day free trial.
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Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
2) Part of what Burnham is relying on is getting Labour a fresh look and resetting, but you get one shot on that and the clock starts from When it’s clear he’s PM, there’s a real risk that honeymoon window ends up being squandered when he’s not actually PM and tied to outgoing admin
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Guy De Launey @guydelauney.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Is binning expert correspondents in eastern Europe a good idea at a time like this? Disinformation on the rise, Russia interfering in many countries, threatening several and actually at war with one? Well, BBC News management seems to think so. It's disposing of me and 4 of my colleagues.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The Keynes name apparently derives from a French nobleman (Cahaignes) who arrived with William the Conqueror and acquired various manors across England as a result. There is a Horsted Keynes in Sussex as well as MK and others.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Congratulations… I missed your post but caught up with a SHOE list posting
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
historyofeconomics.org/awards-and-h...
historyofeconomics.org
Craufurd Goodwin Best Article Prize - The History of Economics Society
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Congratulations to @dkuehn.bsky.social on the HES Goodwin Award for his article "Before NBER: Warren Nutter’s Soviet Research at the CIA," published in the Journal of the History of Economic Thought 47(2), 2025.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
“The Chicago School’s decisive role was to translate that belief into a practical policy program by shifting the focus from market failure to government failure.” open.substack.com/pub/nakedkey...
open.substack.com
Neoliberalism, Classical Liberalism and Neoclassical Economics
Between Classical Rhetoric and Neoclassical Theory
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Interesting insight from @nakedkeynes.bsky.social “neoclassical economists are not neoliberals, because they emphasize market failures & accept wide domains for public policy. But neoliberals must be neoclassicals … because their argument depends on the market as the privileged mechanism of order.”
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I have a PAYG deal unchanged for a decade, with occasional enhancements, contract terms seem to have inbuilt inflation + x% increases, complicated, of course, by the capital allowance for the phone upgrades. Doesn’t the way the index is constructed also reflect, or not, the market structure?
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Matías Vernengo @nakedkeynes.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
This the chart I use in my first class of the history of economics. The Smith/Ricardo/Marx vs Bentham/Mill/Marshall or social conflict vs rationalist/utilitarian traditions. I teach this course less than I would like
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
It’s an interesting thought. It can also be seen as a mechanism for reducing the consumer’s surplus in favour of the seller.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Lawyers doing better than the authors in AI copyright case arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com
Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement is getting messy as judge delays approval
Lawyers accused of rushing historic settlement to seize $320 million in fees.
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
So the Nikkei index was -1.9% overnight, the S&P500 currently-0.6%, the £/$ -0.5%, & FTSE100 -1.7%- but according to the Telegraph the UK impact is all due to the prospects of Andy Burnham whilst the Mail reckons he has spooked the markets & the £ is in a nosedive when it’s up on both 1 & 2 years!
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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Congratulations to you both
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Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche @cleocz.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
New publication! 🥳
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