Welcome to Things I Didn’t Learn in School by Paul Podolsky

You found me.

There are many Substacks. Why read this one?

Because as you read my work, you will understand economics, investing, and geopolitics much, much better.

We are deluged with tidbits of information yet starved of coherent frameworks.

That’s where I come in.

My writing is simple and direct. I worked as a journalist in Moscow and New York early in my career and have published stories in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Associated Press, Bloomberg, and many other outlets.

I provide simplifying but accurate frameworks about geopolitics (particularly Russia and China, both countries I spent a lot of time in) and financial markets. I manage a portfolio of stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities and have been doing so for decades, so my understanding is practical. I spent 16 years at Bridgewater Associates, the biggest hedge fund in the world. (THOUGH THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE).

I was educated at Brown University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts in association with Harvard), and the Maurice Thorez School of Foreign Languages. I am fluent in Russian and have studied Chinese, French, and Spanish.

I like to figure out how things work and share that with you. That’s what this is.

Enjoy.

The Best of Things I Didn’t Learn in School

1. One of my travel reports. I’ve gone to Chile, Argentina, war-torn Ukraine, Georgia and many other regions and share what I am seeing.

2. A definition of what thinking modernity requires and how that differs from traditional, hierarchical thinking.

3. Reflections on Navalny’s death and Putin’s game.

How to manage the ebbs and flows of capital in markets.

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