We hope you enjoy these top news stories about TFAS activities, alumni and events this week. Please visit us on social media for additional up-to-the-moment TFAS news and information and sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly updates.

TFAS alumni, staff and faculty continue to provide coverage of COVID-19.  Read their analysis, information and tips by visiting this week’s “Quick Links.”

TFAS Venezuelan Political Activists Warn U.S. Students About Socialism

The Epoch Times featured TFAS speakers Jorge Galicia and Andrés Guilarte in this edition. The article details their work to share personal stories of growing up in Venezuela and how socialist policies completely crippled their country.

Socialism doesn’t always happen overnight, with a dictator sweeping in and making violent changes. It happened progressively in Venezuela: industry by industry, not unlike what Galicia and Guilarte have noticed about the United States.” – Read full story in The Epoch Times

Galicia and Guilarte tell The Epoch Times that they were surprised to learn that young people in the U.S. were pro-socialism and attribute its appeal to a poor understanding of socialism and what the people of Venezuela were experiencing under it.

“All of these things about political persecution and hiding and not having anything to eat, this was my normal,” Galicia told The Epoch Times. Not having reliable water, gas, or electricity was to be expected, and utilities failed more with every year. “When I started sharing my story, I started noticing everyone was shocked—that’s when I learned that everything I went through was not okay and was not normal at all.”

“Socialism invents new ways of miseries you cannot think about,” Guilarte added. For instance, people in a neighborhood know what time a local restaurant takes out the garbage. “And when they do, you’ll see two or three families waiting to go through the garbage,” Guilarte said. He would see small children eating together out of the garbage, or people going behind garbage trucks to look for food. “That’s just one example.”

Before the coronavirus outbreak closed colleges, Galicia and Guilarte were touring campuses across the U.S. on behalf of The Fund for American Studies, warning college students to not let their countries follow the same destructive path. Now, they are continuing to share their stories through virtual presentations. You can learn about the project at TFAS.org/Venezuela.

TFAS Faculty Recommend Books During Quarantine

The Fund for American Studies’ world-class faculty bring a wealth of knowledge to young leaders through compelling reading assignments and dynamic coursework. Now, we’re calling upon our outstanding professors to share their book recommendations with TFAS alumni and friends.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Marashi ’01, a TFAS alumnus and professor, recommends “Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond to his former students.

“It was this book that inspired my interest in viruses and pandemics and offers a holistic history to understand the current COVID-19 crisis,” Al-Marashi said. “While it lays out a history of the last 13,000 years, it even has relevance for the conflict management module I teach for TFAS Prague, where it allows me to situate contemporary conflicts within the realms of human geography and modern economics.”

Visit TFAS.org/BookRecs1 for a list of TFAS professor book suggestions, and check back in the coming weeks for new recommendations from TFAS and FTE faculty.

Economics Lesson of the Week: Labor Markets

As the spread of COVID-19 causes high schools across the country to close their doors, TFAS is providing resources to help our teachers and parents continue the important task of educating our nation’s future leaders. Each week, we’ll feature a different lesson from our high school programming division – the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE).

This week’s lesson is “Labor Markets.” The focus of this lesson is on the choices made by buyers and sellers of labor services, and the factors and constraints that drive these choices. At the end of this lesson students will be able to:

• Use supply and demand to illustrate how wages are determined.
• Explain how productivity influences wages.
• Provide examples of how technology can be a complement​ or substitute for labor.
• Determine the good or service from which the demand for labor is derived.
• Predict how various policies or regulations will impact labor markets.

Downloadable lesson guides and slides provide instructions. TFAS offers a plethora of online lesson plans, readings, handouts, video demonstrations and hands-on activity guides to teach the “economic way of thinking” in engaging and relatable ways. Visit TFAS.org/FTELessons for a one-stop guide to our available resources.

60% Discount on Liberty Fund Books for TFAS Network

For nearly a decade, TFAS has been proud to organize co-sponsored Curriculum of Liberty Seminars with Liberty Fund for our alumni. Those who participate in a TFAS Curriculum of Liberty Seminar have the opportunity to select volumes from Liberty Fund’s “Library of Liberty,” which includes classic works in history, politics, philosophy, law, education and economics.

To celebrate their 60th anniversary, Liberty Fund is extending this benefit to the entire TFAS Network. Alumni and friends can enjoy a 60% discount on more than 400 titles purchased through Liberty Fund, by using the code “TFAS60” until December 31, 2020.

The books are subject to the Liberty Fund standard shipping rates ($5 for the first book, $1 for each additional book), and the offer is only available for shipments to U.S. addresses.

We hope you will take advantage of this generous offer! Learn more at TFAS.org/bookdiscount.

Tweets Of The Week

Even though they are socially and geographically distance, the TFAS Network always finds ways to come together and support each other.

I will absolutely never forget learning with this AMAZING group of people and @TFASorg. Here’s to years of success in the future! So proud to know you all! https://t.co/tAcZjHmikk

— Faith Elizabeth Allen (@afaith_press) April 16, 2020

Great to see @TFASorg alum @DavidMuir continue to carry on his solid reporting during the pandemic. https://t.co/sYlZRZbxhG

— Andrew Powaleny (@AndrewPowaleny) April 23, 2020

QUICK LINKS

TFAS Alumni + Friends Cover COVID-19 Concerns

Alexandra Hudson, Novak ’19, shares the importance of maintaining social norms amid the coronavirus crisis in a piece for the National Interest.

David Muir ’93 of “ABC World News Tonight” is today’s most watched news source on television. The Washington Post profiled Muir and the reasons so many people are tuning in to his broadcast during the coronavirus outbreak.

Madison Iszler, Novak ’17, takes a look at how the coronavirus crisis will impact the future of traditional office settings in a piece for San Antonio Express News.

TFAS alumnus and New York Daily News reporter Wes Parnell ’17, ’18 shares his personal experience recovering the novel coronavirus and how it impacted his daily work life in a feature for the Empire State Tribune.

Frederico Bartels, PPF ’18, discusses the Chinese government’s lack of transparency in a piece for RealClear Defense.

Michael Brendan Dougherty, Novak ‘09, shares how he and his family are adapting to life during the coronavirus crisis in a piece for National Review.

Peter Suderman, Novak ’10, opines for Reason on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the bartending industry.

Elise Amez-Droz, PPF ’19, opines for The American Spectator on how deregulation policies could allow for more accessible and affordable healthcare in the U.S.

Naomi Schaefer Riley, Novak ’01, shares advice on how parents can establish a routine during the “new normal” of home-schooling in a piece for the Institute for Family Studies.

Graham Kilmer ’15 reports for Urban Milwaukee on how the coronavirus has contributed to the increasing unemployment rate in the U.S.

Ben Nuelle ’14 reports for Agri-Pulse on the FDA’s guideline changes for hand sanitizer production.

Matthew Walther, Novak ’10, discusses the economic and public health implications of the 2020 presidential election in The Week.

Katherine Mangu-Ward, Novak ’05, shares how “seemingly small policy changes can have big effects on incentives and choices down the line” for Reason.

Ken Rosen, Novak ’18, opines for Newsweek on how China’s new coronavirus hotspot along Russia’s border may cause tension between the two nations.

Heather DeSantis ’10 is featured in a Business Insider article about her cross-country journey running her business out of an Airstream trailer with her husband and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted life on the road.

Jordyn Noeninng ’15 shares how Wisconsin bar owners feel about re-opening their businesses in a piece for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

MORE TFAS NEWS

TFAS Director of the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship Program, Daniel McCarthy, has been named a 2020 Lincoln Fellow by the Claremont Institute, alongside Matthew Schmitz, Novak ’17, Nathaniel Fischer ‘05 and former TFAS staff member Andrew McIndoe.