Next Fed meeting is March 18. What's Helicopter Ben Bernanke gonna do?

* Gold at $1000 and soaring
* Oil at $104 and soaring
* Inflation roaring
* Dollar at record lows
* Home prices tanking
* Stock market crashing
* Economy going into the toilet

And to complicate matters, it's an election year, and the incumbents are screaming at Ben to make the bad thing go away.

So what's poor Ben do next?

* Raise 1/4
* No change
* Cut 1/4
* Cut 1/2
* Outright panic and cut 3/4
* End of the world and cut 1 full point
* Quit

And for the inflation / deflation discussion, it sure is looking as many have predicted here that we're seeing asset price deflation combined with commodity and consumables inflation, with a period of planned dollar destruction along the way.

It's tough to imagine it sucking more than it does right about now. But remember, we're just starting. Alt-A and Option ARM are next.

SHOCKING FLASH: Alan Greenspan shocks markets, says home prices are going to crash and crash significantly. No, I'm not making this up.

- Cause greatest financial mania in human history - check

- During mania, tell people to take our adjustable rate loans - check

- During mania, deny there was a mania - check

- After crash starts, admit you screwed up - check

- To finish things off, tell the world that home values are gonna crash and crash significantly - check

Wow.

A HOUSINGPANIC MESSAGE FOR ALAN GREENSPAN - GO F*CK YOURSELF. YOU RUINED LIVES. YOU DESTROYED FAMILIES. AND YOU WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN.

Greenspan alert on US house prices

US house prices are likely to fall significantly from their present levels, Alan Greenspan has told the Financial Times, admitting that there was a bubble in the US housing market.

In an interview ahead of the release on Monday of his widely-anticipated memoirs, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve said the decline in house prices “is going to be larger than most people expect”.