Comstock Partners, one of the most respected (and bearish) value shops on Wall Street, just came out with a special report that gives a grim analysis of the current U.S. economic situation and a harsh indictment of Alan Greenspan's role in creating it.

Charlie Minter and Marty Weiner believe that the Fed has been guilty of over-interfering in the U.S economy. They think Greenspan (in the late 1990s and then again in 2001 after the terrorist attacks) kept money too cheap to stave off an immediate but short-term crisis. We've all nearly forgotten how in 2001 many smart people thought that real estate was overvalued and headed for a fall. Comstock didn't forget.

"The money that was pumped into the economy stopped the market decline and rather than going into a severe recession (which should've and would've happened) we experienced the mildest recession in history," the Comstock fund writes. "Home values were at extremely high valuations in 2001, yet after the stimulus started it drove the valuations to outrageous levels."

Anyone with any money invested in U.S. stocks must check out a recent Financial Times (UK) piece about the United States economy.

"At the heart of the problems is the bursting of the housing bubble that helped to power American growth since this economic cycle started six years ago. The end of the bubble has brought a brutal slide in home construction, house price falls that threaten to undermine household wealth and consumer spending, and turmoil in the credit markets that are used to finance housing."

Indeed, the housing market's collapse had serious ramifications outside of the weakening homebuilders. Subprime mortgages have shaken the credit markets into almost complete fear of providing credit, especially to real estate loans. Consumer spending has been suffering as a result of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) and an inability to cash out of real estate.

Yesterday, Robert Shiller of MacroMarkets said "the pullback in the US residential real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down." This followed the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index falling 0.9% sequentially in the second quarter.

The index is down 3.2% from the second quarter of last year and is at its lowest level since it began in 1987. Robert Shiller went on to say he is worried about your home's value, and that's not good.

As a reminder, Shiller, of Yale professorial claim, correctly called the excesses of the late 1990's stock market. However, while he called the top, he never called the bottom, staying with his bearish bias way too long and never becoming a buyer.

Shiller shifted his focus to real estate in the current decade. Once again, his bearish prognostications proved correct. However, as the real estate market becomes weaker and weaker with the media flocking to his doors, the trained economist appears to be focused on following the downward trend and not attempting to find a point to start bottom fishing.

A new contrarian indicator may be when Shiller hits the airwaves in full force with his bearish views, it could prove to be a good sign that the bottom for the bear market in real estate is near.