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Why is chicken causing a furor between the US and China? It seems that there is a long standing feud over chicken imports to the US. According to Etter and Power, in 2006 the USDA issued a rule that permitted China to export cooked poultry products to the US as long as the raw poultry meat originated in the US. A bruhaha erupted, and lawmakers inserted a provision in the fiscal 2008 spending bill that prohibited processed chicken from being imported into the US.

Now, in retaliation, China is expected to ban imports of US chicken, a move that would cost US chicken exporters $370 million dollars over the next six months.

This is unbelievable! California (my home state) is going to issue I.O.U.'s to seniors, disabled and welfare recipients starting tomorrow because our State Legislature cannot agree on a budget. This is outrageous beyond belief!

Next time someone refers to California as the "Golden State" the laughter from all corners of the nation will be deafening. They say that California Bonds and Schools will not be affected.

What I want to know is whether the politicians will be getting paid in I.O.U.'s. There are many people in the land of the petition and ballot initiative that would be in favor of a law that says the politicians do not get paid for twice the time it takes to settle the budget beyond yesterdays (June 30) deadline.

In a word: yes.

Despite all the talk about regulating these speculative investment vehicles, "Obama's financial overhaul plan included no big surprises or threats to the lucrative, secretive industry," writes The Wall Street Journal.

The name of the game is lobbying, which is easily funded by the $1.3 trillion dollar industry. Even after numerous Ponzi schemes and frauds have recently been exposed, the U.S. government has failed at regulating hedge funds, the most speculative area in finance, in part due to the industry's lobbying efforts.

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:

We live in amazing times. Consumers are earning more; at least the ones with jobs. They are also saving more than they have in the last 15 years. The savings rate, which was hovering near zero in early 2008, surged to 6.9 percent, the highest level since December 1993. I think that is fantastic!

Ben Franklin said, "A penny saved is a penny earned". If that is true, then people are improving their economic condition day by day. Strange as it might seem, the government is troubled by this.

The government and many economists are worried that without greater spending by consumers any economic recovery will be stalled that much further. During our recent manic economy, over the past decade, consumer spending was responsible for about 70% of the GDP.

I say to all my readers, let others spend -- YOU KEEP SAVING -- and reducing debt. You will be glad you did. The consumer led economy was a false economy. The world is mourning the sudden death of Michael Jackson who passed away yesterday from yet to be determined causes leading to cardiac arrest, reportedly $400 million in debt. You think he was under any stress?!

Oil moved up above $70 early in the session, but was unable to hold that momentum through the day. After its strong start to the day, prices dropped $2.19 to $67.83.

A major reason for the drop in prices can be attributed to the World Bank. The World Bank slashed its forecast for this year's global economic growth, and reported that the current recession is deepening.

Outspoken congressman Barney Frank has no shortage of critics, and they're sure to be out in force today. This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, along with his colleague Anthony Weiner, is actually recommending that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) relax their lending standards on condominiums.

The controversial request follows a decision by both Fannie and Freddie to tighten mortgage-lending standards for condos. In March, Fannie said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70% of units have been rented, up from its previous benchmark of 51%. Freddie is due to implement similar measures in July. In a letter to the CEOs of both mortgage lenders, Reps. Frank and Weiner expressed their concerns that the higher standard "may be too onerous," and asked the lenders to "make appropriate adjustments" to their approach.

It really matters little what the outside world thinks about the current conflict in Iran over the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or whether the people in Iran are crushed by the totalitarian form of government that has been adopted. This is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of fact by definition. There is a supreme ruler and what he says goes.

Nothing is more important to the ruling elite than remaining in power -- not the economic well being of it's citizens, not the education of the rural population, not the personal freedoms of the man in the street, and certainly not the rights of Iranian women.

Looking for a new emerging market? Try Pakistan! Despite a continued sense of tension with India and open hostility along the Afghan border, the country's bond market is the best in the world, according to data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). Debt sold by Pakistan has surged 88% this year -- topping the 45 emerging markets that JPMorgan watches and the 19 that Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: BAC) follows.

And, the stock market may be next.

Money managers, according to a report by Bloomberg, believe that the Pakistani equity market could become the next global superstar. The Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index is only trading at 9.6X earnings, making it the lowest in Asia (excluding Japan) . . . and this follows a 21% increase year-to-date.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says we're back in the thrall of Washington, and he for one is tired of it.

You just feel like telling President Obama, "Look, stay focused on getting us out of this severe recession in a responsible way without too much budget busting and things will all come together."

Instead, you wake up, and every day's historic ... including a lot of days you don't want to be historic. Or sweeping. Or groundbreaking. Like this one.

The only thing we really want to hear is that the U.S. growth rate is going from negative to positive, or even less negative. Now in our faces is the World Bank news from China that growth there is being raised from 6.5% to 7.2%. From the Chinese I can take all sorts of sweeping and groundbreaking and even, yes, revolutionary.

U.S. stock futures traded in a narrow range Thursday, indicating, at least at the time investors are looking for direction and Wall Street would have a flat start. Several upcoming economic data could help give the market direction as the recent growing uncertainty about the economic recovery depressed stocks the past few days. However, the main focus for now seems to be the implications of Obama's plan for an overhaul of the financial regulatory system.

The plan includes empowering the Federal Reserve to oversee the largest and most influential financial firms and creating a council of federal regulators, chaired by the treasury secretary, to monitor risk across the broader market. Also, there will be a new consumer protection agency to prevent deceptive practices by such companies as credit card lenders and mortgage brokers. Democratic leaders have committed to enacting the plan by the end of the year.

The rulers of Iran are losing their patience with the election protests of the last few days. They are selectively tightening their grip on the freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to travel and peaceful marches by disenfranchised voters that believe the reported results of a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad victory were a fraud.

The government is cracking down by not renewing visas for the foreign journalists, confining others to their hotels, and limiting all broadcasts and news outlets.

If anything can be gleaned from this, one only need take a brief glance at history to learn that a nation with totalitarian rule begets a totalitarian economy.

What are the new changes in financial regulation? First and foremost, President Obama wants to expand the powers of the Federal Reserve to assume primary responsibility for averting an new financial crisis.

Secondly, he wants to create a "council of financial regulators" who would improve coordination among agencies. The council would discuss systemic risks, but the Fed could at alone without its approval.

The administration has decided not to consolidate regulatory agencies due to the political fallout involved.

U.S. stock futures were mixed and relatively flat Wednesday morning, following two days of losses on Wall Street on concerns about the economy. Investors will look to FedEx (NYSE: FDX) results as the shipping company is often said to keep the pulse of the economy. More inflation data is due today as well.

Wall Street also awaits to hear President Obama's plan to overhaul and modernize financial regulation. Obama aims to strengthen the government's authority over financial institutions, hoping a crisis such as the recent one can be averted in the future with proper regulation. Among the recommendations are new powers for the Federal Reserve; a new consumer protection agency to govern lending and credit; and new rules that would reach into currently unregulated regions of the financial markets.

The Iranian government hand counted tens of millions of presidential election ballots in a couple of hours; less time than we count ours by computer -- an Ayatollahs' miracle for sure!

These results indicated that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was able to garner two-thirds of the vote. Given the Ayatollahs miracle, the public viewed this result as anything but.

Protesters expressing their extreme objection to the election results then created a miracle of their own when up to one million marchers hit the streets forming a 5 to 6 mile parade of discontent, claims of fraud, and in some cases calling the government a dictatorship.

Meanwhile Ahmadinejad who made references to disgruntled fans after a football game in slighting the protesters, hung around for a couple of days before appearing a day late for a conference in Moscow. He missed some of the key events but he did get a chance to mention how bad the US economy was doing, neglecting to mention that Iran's economy is showing signs of falling off a cliff. If he remains president that is a real possibility.

Meanwhile the pragmatist in me knows that the greatest miracle of all would be a recanting of the election results and the president stepping down. The Ayatollahs have asked for an investigation of the election results to appease the fuming population.

The results of this investigation being conducted by the same folks that created the fraud in the first place are easier to determine than any of my stock picks. Look for the results of the investigation to acknowledge that the vote count was off by some meaningless percentage, not affecting the outcome and leaving the results as they stand.

The Ayatollahs are all for democracy as long as they get to choose who wins. Perhaps in the future they will simply default to the patterns of authoritarian rulers before them -- massive election rhetoric, with only one candidate on the ballot.

Related stories:
Iran's great potential and its challenges!
Iran will waste four more years

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.