PolisPandit covers the institutional and financial mechanics of political power. It’s the place where law, markets, and policy intersect.

I’m John Polonis. I spent roughly a decade on Wall Street as a lawyer, first on commodities trading floors at Glencore, then covering a currencies and emerging markets rates desk at JPMorgan. I left finance in late 2021 to be present for my son. 

PolisPandit is what I do now.

This website is my archive of everything I’ve written, filmed, and created since about 2013.

For regular programming, be sure to subscribe to the PolisPandit newsletter, where we go deeper on a weekly basis, with the best stuff behind the paywall.

Most markets coverage stops at the price action. Most legal coverage stops at the court ruling. I’m interested in the levers underneath those stories — procedural moves, institutional challenges, and the regulatory architecture that’s actually doing the work. 

A few recent examples: 

• Nobody Watches When Trump Moves Markets
• What You’re Missing About Iran
• India’s Currency Crisis is Geopolitical 

So if you want financial and legal systems explained to you clearly and deeply from a human voice who has lived it, you’ve come to the right place. 

See you in the stories.