TV THE 'MAD' MONEY MAN

We just passed the fifth anniversary of the NASDAQ's rising above 5,000 before its long, painful decline. You'd think the last thing investors would want is another show about the stock market. Who wants to think about their shrunken portfolios?

Plenty of people, says market maven Jim Cramer, who will host a new show on CNBC, "Mad Money," starting this week. The columnist, former money manager and past cohost of CNBC's "Kudlow & Cramer" talk show, Cramer was in many ways the face and voice of the boom, starting Thestreet.com and encouraging everyone to pile into the market. To Cramer, his front-row seat on the action--good and bad--makes him the perfect guy to help people now. Despite its overheated title, Cramer says "Mad Money" will help people avoid the kind of misguided bets that left them with worthless stock (even as the markets stabilize somewhat). "I want people to understand the stocks they own, understand things like dividends," he says.

Cramer says the timing for the show couldn't be better. "What we learned from the bubble bursting is that people really want help and they want someone who is not tied into Wall Street," he says. "For better or worse, the big firms have been tainted. But we will be looking out for people by beating the system." The question for Cramer and CNBC, which faces its own postbubble malaise of falling viewership, is whether people are still too mad about their money to tune in for more market tips.