On-line optometry? . . . One entrepreneur’s great idea vs. legislators and their cronies.

Why the rich love high taxes . . . It’s all in the small print. Prof. Bryan Domitrovic explains the pet exemption and how high tax rates provide the perfect cover for the biggest income earners.

War on WikiLeaks . . . is war on the first amendment. This is Ron Paul, writing for the Mises Institute: “If the government is successful in shutting down WikiLeaks by labeling it a “hostile intelligence service,” it will use this tactic to silence other organizations and websites as well.”

Minor league football? . . . Separating football from college would make a lot of sense for everyone involved, says Matthew Doernberger of FEE. Everyone except the NCAA, that is.

The racist origin of the minimum wage . . . Deirdre McCloskey of LearnLiberty delves into the darker side of what has always been a bad deal for the poor.

Free speech and guns . . . a scary combination of rights, says Jeffrey Tucker of FEE, but still constitutional and one that the ACLU should still defend.

How to shrink inequality? . . . Shrink trade, progress, and wealth building. Because making everyone poorer is the only way to close that gap.

Enormous orange balls of gas . . . Remy explains how to watch them, whether an eclipse or CNN’s coverage of Trump.

Govt’s contribution to technology . . . was that they got out of its way. LearnLiberty’s Brian Domitrovic explains the explosive effect that the 1964 tax cuts had on Silicon Valley.

What happened to Venezuela? . . . It’s not low oil prices, says Nick Gillespie of Reason. It’s the disease of socialism.

Cheap imports . . . When did they become such a bad thing? They were never bad, and they’re still not. But talking about them can sure gain votes in an election year.

What do Polish air-conditioner makers . . . and Belgium farmers have in common? Very little. And that goes a long way toward explaining why the EU is dysfunctional.

If you build it . . . they won’t necessarily come, especially if it’s built with state funds and a product of state central planners. Per Bylund of Mises observes this play out at a grand scale on a recent visit to China.

Listen up, Millennials! . . . Brazilian native and journalist Felipe Moura Brasil shares this cautionary tale about the realities of embracing socialism.

The greatest invention . . . you’ve never thought about. And it’s inventor was a man you’ve never heard of either: Malcom Mclean. Since the 1960s his innovation has been shaping our lives, and we had no idea.

The thorn in Trump’s side . . . is a republican. US Congressman Justin Amash, one of Michigan’s own, sits down with Matt Welch of ReasonTV to talk Trump and the future of the Republican Party.

Do sanctions work? . . . Here’s Ron Paul’s answer: “So the goal of sanctions is to make life as miserable as possible for civilians so they will try to overthrow their governments. Foreign leaders and the elites do not suffer under sanctions. This policy would be immoral even if it did work, but it does not.”

He won’t be cornered! . . . Mark Matson gets pressed for stock picks by the FOX talking head, but as usual he stays on message: Don’t pick stocks. OWN IT ALL!

Gov’t bureaucracy MUST expand . . . It’s built in, and it’s human nature, says economics prof Abby Hall of the U of Tampa.

And when it does expand . . . John Stossel will show us all the prudent ways those bigger budgets get spent.

Price as language. . . It took the free market and the language of the pricing system to give us the pencil and the IPhone, and there’s a good reason why. Dr. Dan Russell explains how central planners can NEVER provide what people with disbursed knowledge can.

Student loans . . . It seems like they’ve been around forever, but Dr. Brian Domitrovic of Learn Liberty sets the record straight and gives us some hope about where we might be headed next.

Everything’s big in Texas . . . especially the auto dealership lobby. But Elon Musk is one guy who doesn’t seem to let big challenges get in his way. He wants to sell his Teslas directly to the consumer. So in this fight, is he the David or the Goliath? Either way, it should be interesting.

Our roads are crumbling . . . say infrastructure contractors, lobbyists, and everyone else who feeds off government contracts. The rest of us (us being those who actually produce, distribute, and comprise the nation’s economic activity) seem to be getting to work and getting our products to market just fine.

Price is not the price . . . Dan Russell of Learn Liberty explains real price vs. nominal price, as well as the concept of consumer surplus. [3:50]

Prison overcrowding . . . is a function of economics: Police, prosecutors, and judges all have common access to the prison system, but none bears any cost in usuing (cost entirely socialized; that means you and me). It’s the “Tragedy of the Commons”, says Chris Calton of Mises.

Losing a liberty-loving judge . . . You’ve probably never heard of her, but US Court of Appeals judge Janice Rogers Brown, a strong economic libertarian and Constitutionalist, is retiring. Barack Obama thought she was crazy, so that’s something.

People will die! . . . Actually, we’ll all die eventually no matter how hard we try to legislate death away. One of Remy’s best. [2:00]

The tool of money . . . It’s more than just a means of facilitating transactions. It’s soooo much more, says Ludwig von Mises.

The War on Terror . . . Our efforts have failed, say CATO analysyts A. Trevor Thrall and Erik Goepner, and Trump would do well by listening to why.

Why free trade works . . . Dan Russell of Learn Liberty takes us through a Comparative Advantage mini lesson to show us how trade is necessary for wealth creation.

Criminalize screen time? . . . Colorado is considering it. Our nostalgia-loving hearts may say yes, but our liberty-loving heads should be screaming NO!

Is the US coming apart? . . . Maybe, says Angelo Codevilla, retired professor and conservative. But it may also be the best and quickest way to radical decentralization of federal power.

Wage-less in Seattle . . . What smart economists have been saying about raising the minimum wage — that it hurts the poor the most — is being proven right now in Seattle’s $13/hr ($15 by 2021) experiment.

That’s one for the big guy . . . SCOTUS rules for the state and against property rights: “…government goals set the playing field,” says dissenting justice John Roberts.

Progressives who hate progress? . . . That would be the nation’s big cities, who seem to prefer protecting the status quo over encouraging actual innovation.

Brexit is on . . . so what now? Alasdair Macleod of Mises updates us on the Brexit status in the U.K. and shows us what Germany is thinking (spoiler: they’re looking east to China and Russia!).

What is wealth? . . . Dan Russell of Learn Liberty takes a shot at the question. He’s not entirely right, but there’s some truth in what he says.

Soft despotism? . . . Alexis de Tocqueville says we’re there. (He’s dead, but he said it a couple hundred years ago, and the guys at Learn Liberty seem to agree with him).

The other tireless Paul . . . Rand points out the absurdity of the Cuban embargo and the only weapon we should be using against them: capitalism.

Going global . . . Brian Domitrovic of Learn Liberty traces America’s economic history from WWII to today.

Our 51st state? . . . Puerto Rico would like that. Statehood would bring many benefits, but, says Ed Krayewski of Reason, they’ll need to set aside their love of big government if they expect to turn things around economically.

Squid and Whale . . . M.G. Seigler of FEE extols the two biggest and most interesting creatures in the digital ocean: Netflix and Amazon.

Gun rights in Europe . . . There aren’t a lot. But things may be changing.