At this writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 177 points. The dollar is up overseas on news that tech stocks such as Apple, Research In Motion, and IBM are doing well, and Wall Street is thrilled about that, at least for today. Tomorrow, who knows? Lately the Dow jumps anytime any moderately happy news appears, no matter how fleeting or ephemeral. Check back in an hour and it could be DoomsDow again.

Meanwhile, the cost of gas and food rose faster in April than in any other month so far this year, lay-offs are at their highest level in five years, GM sales are down 22% in a single month, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has hinted that the rash of emergency Fed-to-the-Rescue rate cuts may be coming to an end. Good thing too, because yesterday’s quarter point cut took the rate banks charge each other on daily loans to only 2%. Right now there isn’t a lot of rate left to cut.

Hope does spring eternal though. Wall Street is still looking for the silver lining in that F5 tornado that started forming over the American financial landscape around November of last year. Ordinary people, on the other hand, are getting scared. America is developing a sort of split personality in 2008: One America buys precious metals and puts money on commodities trading and watches for the rainbow. The other America reads up on Victory Gardening, hoards rice, bikes to work, and reads up on the Apocalypse. A personal finance blogger couldn’t ask for a stranger or more exciting time to be writing about money.

The most troubling part of this split is that neither group seems to really know what is going to happen next. If ever there was a time to bone up one’s financial skills and knowledge about how money and the economy works, this is it, and yet even financial gurus hedge and stammer. As a nation, we survived the Great Depression, the tech stock bubble, the credit union crisis, a raft of major corporate accounting scandals, but now, at this weird juncture, even the experts are looking over their shoulders. We all seem to be dogged by the feeling that something is gaining on us. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also a time ripe with the potential for positive change.

My own hope is that these scary times will inspire people in both Americas to talk to one another and reach out for information, ideas, and practical advice about money, politics, and the economy, and that this dialog will help all of us through whatever it is that comes our way. Perhaps those clouds will indeed disperse and we’ll all look back and laugh at how panicked the country was over nothing. More likely though, tough times will continue to hammer at us for quite a few years. Most people avoid dealing with money, preferring to just let it deal with itself. It’s possible to take that attitude in good times, even though it’s not advisable. But to take that approach in hard times is suicidal. When money is scarce, people have to think about it.

That is not all bad.

The fact is that the more you learn about your money and how it works, and how other people use, take, exploit, invest, or increase your money, the better off you are. Personal Finance Analyst provides a wealth of information on just about any money topic you can imagine, and I hope people read, and talk and argue about all of these topics. I’m looking for spirited conversation and radical ideas and rants and queries. Whether I’m driving a Mercedes or a Pee Herman bicycle, that’s the America I love and was raised to love.

I’m really excited to be here. I hope you are too. If you’re not, by all means, let’s talk.

Oh, and welcome!