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Economist and law professor Gordon Tullock passed away the day before the election. But had he lived another day, he still wouldn't have voted.

He refused to vote, in part because the branch of economics he helped create public choice helped convince him that people behave just as selfishly and foolishly when they vote as when they make any other kind of decisions but with more devastating effects on other people.

At the Cafe Hayek blog, economist Don Boudreaux writes that it's good if people don't vote because by avoiding politics they come to depend more on personal initiative and less on untrustworthy, power-craving strangers.

Well said.

We don't suddenly become wiser and nobler when we step into the voting booth. If anything, the decisions we make there are more ignorant and reckless than the ones we make when buying a car.

You probably know more about what kind of car you want than about what sort of laws to impose on your neighbors. It's another reason why most of life is best left to free individuals.

The left treats markets with contempt and political processes as if they're sacred. Then, to explain why politics disappoints, they pretend that money sullies politics.

They're upset because the Supreme Court said money can be spent on ads that inform voters of different factions' views. It turned out that Democrats were the biggest spenders. But that doesn't stop them from complaining that evil Republican tycoons used money to manipulate voters who would otherwise have chosen the candidates decent Democrats want them to.

Republicans, meanwhile, get upset if money is used to bet on things. There once was a wonderful online predictions market called Intrade. It allowed people to bet on future events, including elections.

Intrade's odds were much more accurate predictions than those made by pundits and pollsters. That's because there is wisdom in large numbers and because Intrade bettors put real money at risk (unlike pundits and water-cooler prognosticators).

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Democracy delusions

NEW WORLD ORDER - Communism by the backdoor - Part 1
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NEW WORLD ORDER - Communism by the backdoor - Part 1 - Video

Hashtag Just Girly Things #4: Communism the musical.
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Hashtag Just Girly Things #4: Communism the musical. - Video

Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, at the Berlin Wall memorial. Photograph: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/Corbis

Marx and Engels proclaimed in 1848 that a spectre was haunting Europe the spectre of communism.

As it turned out, the spectre did eventually materialise, in the form of Soviet communism, which spread after the second world war to eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall was built 16 years later, in 1961, to put a stop to the way East Germans were voting about communism with their feet.

There have been celebrations recently to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall in November 1989. That fall was followed in 1991 by the collapse of the Soviet Union itself, a Soviet Union about which President Putin appears to harbour nostalgic feelings.

After those events there was an inevitable burst of triumphalism in the west. Some of us feared that, with the disappearance of the communist threat, some of the worst instincts of casino capitalism would be evinced; and so they were.

I myself had what I thought was a bright idea of writing a book called The Spectre of Capitalism. I hoped the catchy title would make my fortune indeed, make me a capitalist but it has to be said that sales fell woefully short of anything written by Marx.

Now the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has followed Marx with a declaration last week that a spectre is now haunting Europe the spectre of economic stagnation.

This phrase received about as much attention as that book of mine. It was uttered during the presentation of the monetary policy committees quarterly inflation report, and people were much more interested in the outlook for interest rates: the story remains that rates went outside after the financial crash, and will continue to remain outside for some time.

But, as the Bank is keen to emphasise, the outlook for the British economy is a lot better than that for Europe in general: it may be the slowest recovery in centuries, but our economy is now on the mend. However, there is a still a long way to go to make up the ground lost after Chancellor Osbornes woefully misjudged decision to abort the 2010 recovery he inherited with a needlessly deflationary and (literally) counterproductive fiscal policy.

Which brings us back to the spectre haunting Europe. Carney was not referring to David Cameron, but it intrigues me that when the prime minister and a legion of others go on about the need for reform in Europe, they are barking up the wrong tree. As Llewellyn Consulting points out in its current bulletin, the universal chant when the subject of the eurozones plight comes up is that what is needed is more structural reform.

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The spectre of communism? Europe should fear the spectre of austerity

Its easy to be pessimistic about the future of liberty. Yet sometimes freedom advances with extraordinary speed. Like 25 years ago in Europe.

As 1989 dawned communism had ruled what was the Russian Empire reborn for seven decades. The system failed to fulfill its promise of human liberation, but survived with the backing of secret police, gulags, and the Red Army.

Then in an instant it all was swept away. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was open. One of the most dramatic symbols of human tyranny was gone.

Tens of thousands of East Germans were imprisoned for Republikflucht, or attempting to flee the East German paradise. Some 1000 people died trying to escape East Germany, about 200 from Berlin.

As 1989 dawned there was obvious unrest in what Ronald Reagan had called the Evil Empire. Hope was rising, but no one could forget that previous popular demands for freedom always had been crushed by Soviet tanks.

In 1989 Hungary led the way. Plans were made for multiparty elections. The Communist Party dissolved. When the new leadership tore down Hungarys wall with the West the Iron Curtain had a huge hole.

Polands communist regime made a deal with a revived Solidarity Union and held free elections. The liberal tide rose in Czechoslovakia, sweeping away the hardline leadership installed to squelch the Prague Spring of 1968.

The East German regime remained tough. Frustrated East Germans began escaping through Hungary, with its open border.

Protests spread, causing the communist leadership to temporize. On November 4 a million people gathered in East Berlin.

On November 9 visibly struggling Politburo member Guenter Schabowski declared that East Germans would be free to travel to the West immediately. Border guards desperately sought guidance as tens of thousands of people gathered demanding to be let through. Just before midnight the security forces stood aside.

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When Liberty Knocked Down the Berlin Wall