UPDATE 1-China survey shows expectations for policy easing on rise

Growing numbers of Chinese bankers expect Beijing to ease monetary policy further in the third quarter to spur flagging economic growth, although more households think consumer prices will rise, according to a quarterly survey by the People's Bank of Chinapublished on Tuesday. The survey showed that 32.4 percent of bankers believe monetary policy will be relaxed. That was 25.7 percentage points higher than in the previous survey, which measured expectations for the second quarter. It also showed 35.6 percent of residents expected consumer prices to rise in the third quarter, 4.2 percentage points higher than in the previous survey, which could limit the room for more policy easing. However, consumers are more willing to spend, indicating that Beijing's fresh incentives to encourage Womens Nike Free Run 2 purchases of energy-efficient automobiles and home appliances are starting to work. Chinese banks have quickened the pace of lending, with an index measuring loan approvals hitting 47.8 percent in the second quarter, the highest reading since 2010, according to the quarterly survey. However, an index measuring overall loan demand fell to the lowest since at least 2009, reinforcing weakness in the world's second-largest economy, which is widely expect to grow at its slowest rate in more than three years. Chinese banks extended 793 billion yuan ($124.7 billion) in fresh loans in May, up from 682 billion yuan in April and stronger than 720 billion yuan expected by the financial markets, suggesting the government's fast-tracking of infrastructure projects was creating loan demand as opposed to there being a pick-up in broader economic activity. China lowered interest rates on June 7, its first such move since the depths of the global crisis, on top of three cuts in banks' required reserves ratio (RRR) to pump money into the economy. It is expected to cut RRR by another 100 basis points in the rest of 2012, according to the latest Reuters poll. WEAK DEMAND The central bank's survey in the second quarter also showed that export order index climbed to 48.8 percent, up from 46.9 percent in the first quarter. However, another index measuring corporate expectations on export orders slipped to 50.9 percent versus 52.1 percent in the previous quarter. The domestic order index edged down to 50.2 percent in the second quarter, versus 50.5 percent in the first three months, while the index measuring corporate expectations on domestic orders also declined to 51.9 percent this quarter from 53.5 percent in the previous quarter, the central bank said. On the household front, the survey showed Chinese urban residents are less Cheap Euro 2012 Jersey happy about consumer prices, their incomes and jobs in the second quarter versus three months earlier, but they still planned some major purchases. The central bank said 15.1 percent of the 20,000 households polled planned to buy cars in the next three months, the highest since the survey started in 1999. It also showed that 68.5 percent of residents regarded current home prices as "unacceptably high," and 20.4 percent expected home prices to rise even higher in the third quarter. Expectations of dearer home prices are prompting some people to buy now. Thus, 15.7 percent of residents plan to buy a home in the next three months, 1.6 percentage points more than in the previous survey. Official data on Monday showed Chinese home prices fell in May for the eighth straight month, but the pace moderated, fuelling talk that the real estate market may be bottoming out and that recent monetary stimulus could set the stage for a rebound. While not a base-case scenario for most economists, fears of a sharp property price drop have added to concerns over the outlook for the world's second-largest economy as it struggles with weaker demand abroad and at home.

Prosecutors want 230-year prison term for ex-Texas tycoon Stanford for $7 billion Ponzi scheme

HOUSTON — If federal prosecutors have their way, former jet-setting Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford could receive a prison sentence that spans two centuries for bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over two decades in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. Calling Stanford a “ruthless predator” who stole from investors “simply to satisfy his own greed and vanity,” prosecutors are asking U.S. District Judge David Hittner to sentence the one-time billionaire to 230 years in prison, the maximum sentence he faces at a hearing Thursday. A jury convicted Stanford in March on 13 of 14 fraud-related counts. Stanford’s attorneys are asking for a maximum of 44 months, a sentence he could actually complete Cheap Euro 2012 Jersey within about eight months because he has already been in jail since his arrest in June 2009. Prosecutors also want Hittner to order Stanford to forfeit $5.9 billion, but that would be symbolic because Stanford, now penniless, had to rely on court-appointed attorneys to defend him. Prosecutors said Stanford used the money from investors who bought certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua to fund a string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and pay for a lavish lifestyle. Defense attorneys portrayed Stanford, 62, as a visionary entrepreneur who conducted legitimate business deals. Before imposing the sentence, Hittner was expected to hear from two people speaking on behalf of investors about how Stanford’s fraud has affected their lives. One of those individuals is Angela Shaw, a Dallas woman who founded the Stanford Victims Coalition after she and her husband lost $2 million in the alleged scheme. Shaw said she hopes Hittner imposes the maximum sentence, which would surpass the 150-year term Bernard Madoff received for orchestrating the largest pyramid scheme in history. “At a minimum, Allen Stanford deserves bragging rights” over Madoff, she said. “His victims have been living in a perpetual and unending sentence.” The jury that convicted Stanford also allowed U.S. authorities to go after about $330 million in stolen investor funds sitting in the financier’s frozen foreign bank accounts in Canada, England and Switzerland. But due to legal wrangling, it could be years before the more than 21,000 investors recover Nike Free Run anything. The financier’s trial was delayed after he was declared incompetent in January 2011 due to an anti-anxiety drug addiction he developed in jail. He underwent treatment and was declared fit for trial in December. Three other former Stanford executives are scheduled for trial in September. A former Antiguan financial regulator was indicted and awaits extradition to the U.S. Stanford and his former executives also are fighting a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that accuses them of fraud.

Four primary races set in fight for Senate control

(Reuters) - Virginia Republican George Allen easily won his primary race on Tuesday in the first step of his bid to reclaim the U.S. Senate seat he narrowly lost in 2006, as voters in four states set the stage for hotly contested battles that could shift control of the Senate.Allen, also a former Virginia governor, lost by barely 9,000 votes in 2006 to Democrat Jim Webb, who is retiring at the end of his term next year. In the November 6 elections, Allen will face another ex-governor, Tim Kaine, who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.Republicans need a net gain of four seats in November Cheap Euro 2012 Jersey to take control of the U.S. Senate.Besides Virginia, voters in Maine, North Dakota and Nevada were picking Senate candidates in contested primaries on Tuesday.Allen, once a rising star on the national political stage who stumbled in his 2006 re-election bid on the issue of race, took 65 percent of the vote. Jamie Radtke, the strongest of his three rivals, trailed with just over 23 percent.Allen and Kaine both enjoy significant fundraising capability, well-established campaign networks and national prominence. Allen weighed a presidential run four years ago. Kaine was an early backer of President Barack Obama and later served as Democratic National Committee chairman.Virginia is considered a tossup in the 2012 presidential election, ensuring the Allen-Kaine campaign will carry added significance.In Maine, voters were picking candidates for the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Olympia Snowe, who is retiring.INDEPENDENT FAVORITE IN MAINECynthia Dill, a civil rights lawyer and state senator, won the Democratic nomination. With 75 percent of precincts reporting, Republican Charles Summers, Maine's secretary of state and a former Snowe aide, had a 6-point lead over his nearest challenger.Both Dill and her Republican rival, however, will face an uphill task running against early favorite Angus King, a popular former two-term governor and independent.In the Republican primary for North Dakota's open Senate seat, the state's lone U.S. representative, Rick Berg, was leading Duane Sand by 67 percent to 33 percent with nearly 47 percent of precincts reporting. The victor will face Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, a former state attorney general, who was unopposed in her party's primary.Veteran Democratic Senator Kent Conrad has opted not to seek re-election in North Dakota, which leans heavily Republican in its legislature and has a Republican governor.In Nevada, seven-term U.S. Representative Shelley Berkley faces little serious competition in her race to become the Democratic nominee to challenge Republican Senator Dean Heller, who was appointed last year after John Ensign resigned in disgrace following a sex scandal.Heller, like Berkley, was expected to easily win his party's nomination, setting up a general election race that will help decide whether the Nevada's senior U.S. senator, DemocratHarry Reid, remains majority leader.But the most hotly contested Nevada primary on Tuesday was for the newly created, Democratic-leaning 4th Congressional District, where three candidates were in a close race for the Republican nomination to run against the likely Democratic nominee, state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford.Businessman Danny Tarkanian had strong support from the Nike Free Dame Tea Party movement and the most name recognition in the Republican field as the son of former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. But he faced a tough race against state Senator Barbara Cegavske and businessman Dan Schwartz.There was controversy in South Carolina, which did not have a U.S. Senate seat to contest in its primary on Tuesday, after the state Supreme Court removed more than 200 contenders for other offices from the ballot on grounds that they had improperly filed paperwork for their candidacies.Incumbent U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, known for shouting "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's 2009 State of the Union address to Congress, won the Republican primary and is running unopposed for re-election in November.In another closely watched race, nine Republicans and four Democrats were seeking their parties' respective nominations for newly established 7th congressional seat in South Carolina.