The first half of 2009 has whizzed by in what seems like a macroeconomic eye-blink. Wasn't President Obama inaugurated just a few weeks ago? It's a cliché but it's true: time flies.

The nation has made strides to recover from its near-decade of policy errors, but much work remains. Accordingly, then, here are three economic wishes for the United States for the second half of the year:

Affordable fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (OTC: HMRZF) beat profit and margin expectations for the second quarter of 2009, as currency swings are becoming less costly. Gross margins reached 61%, ahead of the 60.2% forecasted by analysts for the world's third largest clothing retailer. Even though some sales figures were under pressure, H&M has turned in a strong quarter and is well-positioned for the rest of the year, particularly in a tight market for consumers.

H&M's pre-tax profits increased 6.4% to $735 million for the second quarter (which ended on May 31, 2009). The mean forecast was $721 million, according to a Reuters poll. May sales were unchanged from May 2008, though a 1.4% gain was expected. Sales in stores open for at least a year dropped 9%, rather than the forecasted 8.5%. Nonetheless, the positive developments more than offset the negative.

Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) has seen resurgent competition from mass retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT); are the employees of either retailer better? Best Buy seems to think so. Some of the newer advertising indicates that Best Buy employees are better at helping customers than Wal-Mart employees.

Although Wal-Mart has greatly enhanced the consumer electronics sections of its supercenter locations in the last 18 months, do the employees really know the ins and outs of all the new technology? Wal-Mart seems to really want to step up its competitiveness against Best Buy and others, but does it have the backbone to do so outside of just the products?

Under the radar: Some trends are obvious enough and visible to all investors. Others are more-subtle, but are just as potent, and these often slip 'under the radar.'

Case in point: U.S. continuing claims for unemployment. They fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. If the downtrend in 'CCs' is sustained, that would represent another 'green shoot,' -- or sign that the U.S. recession is bottoming.

Is the unemployment picture getting any better? The truth is that's its hard to tell. The Labor Department said that initial claims for state unemployment insurance rose 3,000 to 608,000. The expected number was 600,000. This is especially disturbing since this is the time of year when most hiring in done, mainly in the construction trades.

However, there is some good news. Continued claims for unemployment (those persons already on the rolls) fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million. This was the lowest level since May 9, as well as the largest one-week drop since November 2001. This indicates that persons already on the rolls are finding work, and that's good news.

There's new boss at Chrysler, and his name is Sergio Marchionne. On the job just a few days, Mr. Marchionne has shown that he plans to run a tight ship at Chrysler. His first move was to appoint powerful divisional heads with profit and loss accountability.

He has initiated a top-to-bottom shake-up, naming 23 executives who will report directly to him. Some of the 23 are from Fiat and others were promoted within Chrysler.

Can you imagine the anxiety in executive offices all across the country? Why is that you ask? The Obama Administration wants to give the SEC new powers on executive pay by forcing firms to let shareholders vote on executive pay and make executives who set pay schedules more independent.

Today's proposal, which is subject to Congressional approval, would cover all companies. The administration will also name a "special master" to monitor compensation plans for companies receiving government assistance.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Chrysler's sale to Fiat can proceed. Over the past week we thought that Chrysler's bankruptcy was almost over. But then a group of Indiana pension funds filed suit with the court to delay the sale.

At issue was $42 million of $6.9 billion of secured debt. The pension funds held that Chrysler's offer of 29 cents on the dollar violated their creditor rights.

A United Auto Workers union health care trust, a more junior unsecured debtor, would receive 55% equity stake. This deal was much more favorable than the offer to the Indiana pension funds.

Unemployment continues to be on the minds of most Americans, and in May the level of unemployment nation wide jumped again, up to 9.4%.

We are now sitting at levels of unemployment that we have not seen since all the way back to 1982, as another 345,000 jobs were lost last month. The good news is that this was much lower than the figure that analysts had been forecasting.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Tom Fant.

The employment number was better than expected. No question about it. Looking behind the number, I see all industries still contracting albeit less so except education/health.

Leisure was up but only 3k. Federal government hiring was negative for the first time this year. I'm still watching the hiring of temp workers, which is still negative but just barely at -7k which is much better than previous reports and could be a sign of good things to come.

Here's a great surprise: Job losses slowed dramatically in May.

Let's look at the numbers:

• Non-farm payrolls dropped 345,000. Economists had expected a drop of 525,000.
• The economy has lost 6 million jobs since December 2007.
• The unemployment rate jumped to 9.4%, the highest since August 1983.
• Economists expect to see 10% unemployment soon.

U.S. stock futures advanced Thursday morning, pointing to a higher open on Wall Street as investors await retail chain stores sales figures and more employment figures.

Generally, investors expect retail sales to be mixed as the retail sector grapples on the one hand with positive indicators such as improved consumer confidence and a slowing rate of decline in consumer spending, and negatively affecting indicators such as the absence of last year's rebate checks, record-high unemployment rate, a gradual pickup in gasoline prices and continued declines in big-ticket, discretionary spending.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, job losses slowed during May for the the fourth straight month. The report showed that job cuts totaled 111,182 during May, 16% better than the 132,590 jobs cut in April. May's total was the lowest since last September, but was still 7.4% higher than a year ago.

The greatest amount of layoffs came from the government/non-profit sector for the third-straight month. The second largest amount of cuts came from the computer sector, followed by the chemical and automotive industries.

Well, now, we can say it's a final, final. GM bondholders voted Saturday on a plan to exchange their debt for an ownership stake as high as 25%. The bondholders have the the sticky wicket in the restructuring plan for GM. They had steadfastly refused to fall in line until the last minute. At stake was $27.2 billion of debt that bondholders were holding. Finally, at least 50% of them agreed to the swap. Now GM can file for bankruptcy protection on Monday morning.

The United Automobile Worker Union, through its retiree health care fund, will receive a 17.5% stake in GM and warrants to buy an additional 2.5%. Bondholders will get a 10% stake and warrants to buy an additional 2.5%. The Federal Government has lent GM $20 billion since December and will end up owning about 70% of the company.

There has been a lot of debate over the past couple of months over General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM). What would be best for the company? Government bailout money to help avoid bankruptcy, or should we allow the company to go through bankruptcy proceedings?

If you are on the side of the argument that thinks GM should enter bankruptcy, well, you are about to get exactly that. According to Bloomberg, General Motors plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1.