Festival of bad news

Cue the dancing bears. Jittery investors, who already know the U.S. economy is cooling, will get so many reminders of it this week that you shouldn't be surprised if the stock market tanks at some point. And if it doesn't, it will show that investors can burn out on bad news and stop listening after awhile. Here's what you can expect this week:

• Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Max will post massive quarterly losses. They're the two biggest sources of U.S. home loan financing.
• Three giant investment firms will report quarterly results this week, and all three -- Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers -- are expected to announce more giant writedowns of bad debt.
• The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that resales of existing homes had fallen to the slowest rate in a generations -- prices down, too -- and by the end of the week we will have gotten a similar report on new home sales from the Commerce Department.
• The Labor Department will update the producer price index Tuesday. Does anyone think prices won't rise further?
• By the end of the week we'll have the consumer confidence index from the University of Michigan and that Chicago report from purchasing managers, both of which will say people are spending less.
• A bunch of retailers report quarterly results this week, starting with Lowe's, which said Monday its profits were down a third from last year. Remember, two thirds of all U.S. economic activity is consumer spending.

Won't there be anything reassuring? Well, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies before the House Financial Services Committee (on Wednesday) and the Senate Banking Committee (on Thursday) and is expected to use what the Wall Street Journal calls his most reassuring bedside manner. That means he'll signal yet another interest rate cut in March and find a way to say that the Fed hopes and believes this won't rekindle price inflation. Not every Fed governor agrees. Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said Friday that policymakers face the challenge of promoting job growth without stirring inflation's embers. But it should be noted that the last Fed interest rate came on a 9-1 vote and the banker from the Lone Star State was the lone dissenter. When it comes to speaking for his colleagues, Fisher is, as they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle. The next Fed interest rate meeting is March 18. The Fed last week revised its economic expectations for the year downward, but still concluded that the U.S. economy this year will grow 1.7% to 2%. While Ben Bernanke reassures the markets, his predecessor is reveling in his newfound plain English and scaring the geese. Alan Greenspan, speaking to an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, said the economy is "at stall speed" and the run-up in oil prices will last "forever."