ELMIRA, New York (Reuters) - Violent thunderstorms barreled through the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic regions of the eastern United States late on Thursday, killing two people and cutting power to more than 130,000 homes and businesses in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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OK, so we work hard, but where did that work ethic come from? Did Thomas Jefferson refuse to take lunch breaks? Was Julius Caesar the last guy to leave the Senate on a Friday night? For a history lesson we talked with Roger Hill, a professor at the University of Georgia, Athens' school of Workforce Education, Leadership, and Social Foundations. If Professor Hill were to rank America's current work ethic based on a 1-10 scale (with 10 representing moments in our history where we work hardest and 1 where we work laziest), he says he'd give Americans an 8 or a 9  overall. "The difference is the nature of the work," said Hill. "Usually when we think about work in the Western part of the world, which includes the United States, we go back actually to the time of the Hebrews and at that period of time work was primarily regarded as a curse. The Greeks also had poor attitudes about work. Work was not something someone would espouse to do." Negative attitudes about work continued into the medieval period, says Hill. But in the 1500s a significant shift occurred in attitude as a result of the Protestant Reformation. For more on the history of America's work ethic -- and to hear Hill's thoughts on whether a society's work ethic dictates its success and what we can do to make sure we work the perfect amount today -- click the play button on the audio player above.

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Tess Vigeland: If you have trouble keeping your lawn green in the summer time, here's an incentive: a $200 dollar ticket. That's what some homeowners in one Denver development are facing for brown patches in their yards. Yes, in the same state that just experienced a rash of massive wildfires. Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee has our story. Megan Verlee: There's not a lot of green in Colorado this summer. The corn is withering, the pine trees are parched, and in Lori Worthman's yard, whole patches of grass are just refusing to grow. Lori Worthman: I've put plenty of money into it and now we're throwing water at it. And so when they said, 'You've still got to pay $200, your lawn doesn't look good,' I just thought, you gotta be kidding me. She's not the only one -- around 500 homeowners in her subdivision got a lawn ticket from the Green Valley Ranch Homeowners Association this summer. But if you think the head of the HOA has no sympathy, you're wrong. Jack Tanner knows it's hard. Jack Tanner: I mean, in these economic times, it's rough because lawns are not necessarily the cheapest thing in the world to take care of. But lawn tickets aren't cheap either. Worthman has until next spring to get her grass to grow, but she's got one heavy-hitting ally. The Denver Water utility heard about her ticket and sent out a specialist to help her with the problem. In Denver, I'm Megan Verlee for Marketplace.

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… Movie rental giant, Blockbuster LLC, has been suffering dramatic losses in revenue over the last few years. These losses are direct results of competition with on demand video services from cable providers, and online streaming services, such as Netflix and

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Tess Vigeland: They're finally here. The Olympics are officially under way in London. When the U.K. bid to host the Games it promised that London would be a "clean city." But this is not about sweeping the sidewalk and removing graffiti and garbage. In Olympic-speak "clean" means uncluttered by advertising -- at least from companies that aren't sponsoring the Olympics. So within a 1 kilometer radius of the Olympic Park only official sponsors allowed. And woe be to any company that tries to muscle in on the Olympic brand. Our Stephen Beard has the story from London. Stephen Beard: Helicopter gunships, missile batteries, even a warship in the Thames. The Brits are throwing everything into protecting the Games. And lawyer Paul Jordan says they’re also also vigorously defending the Olympic brand. Paul Jordan: They will have eyes and ears on the ground around the Olympic Park, which will bolster the 300 or so trading standard officers wandering around. So I think there will be quite an army on the lookout. In the run up to the Games, officials came down hard against any non-sponsors daring to associate themselves with the Olympics. A butcher was threatened with a $30,000 fine. His crime: dangling five sausages –- like Olympic rings –- in his shop window. And florist Lisa Cross was also threatened for her Olympic flower arrangement, complete with cardboard torch. Lisa Cross: Everybody said, 'What a wonderful display!' At the end of the day we’re only supporting Team GB, so what are doing wrong? I can't see what I've done wrong. The crackdown has infuriated staff at the Spectator Magazine. They feel that the Olympic authorities have been ludicrously heavy-handed. Freddy Gray: I think they’re absurd. They’re ruining their own brand by excessively protecting it. Assistant editor Freddy Gray says the Olympic officials are even outstripping totalitarian regimes. Gray: Che Guevara's image was never protected by the Cuban authorities in the way that the Olympics protect the Olympic rings, for instance. Olympic brand infringement is a criminal offense. And non-sponsors are forbidden by law to advertise anywhere near Olympic facilities. You could argue that a non-sponsoring company is partly to blame. At the Atlanta Games in 1996, the U.S. sportswear giant Nike grabbed a golden opportunity and staged the classic marketing ambush. Mark James is a law lecturer at Salford University. Mark James: Nike effectively bought up all of the advertising space in and around the center, so they were able to get massive media coverage despite not being the official sponsors of that particular Games. Which might explain the authorities’ zeal to prevent big non-sponsors from stealing the Olympic limelight. But Helen Day is wondering why the Olympic authorities have been bothering her. She runs a small entertainment agency with a troupe of acrobats on her books. Helen Day: It's all right. No, keep going, keep going. It's all right. Here they are practicing on the trapeze under Helen's watchful eye. When she published a photograph of the girls draped inside five aerial rings, the Olympic authorities swung into action and banned the picture. Helen Day: I think they've created a real sense of negativity amongst small business owners about the Olympics, which is a real shame because it should be something we’re celebrating, something we’re getting behind. And after all, it is something our taxes have paid for. Thwarting the Olympic authorities and their sponsors could even become a national sport. A leading British wine merchant is offering steep discounts to customers who can prove they've bought products from non-sponsors. In London, I’m Stephen Beard for Marketplace.

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Jeremy Hobson: So what are we doing all of this hard work for? If it's not because we love it. ot could be because we've got a goal in mind. Say... retirement. But commentator Teresa Ghilarducci says without government intervention all our labors could be for nothing. Teresa Ghilarducci: For most Americans, the point of a lifetime of hard work is retirement, and for more than 30 years, we've seen the 401(k) as the means to that end. But after a generation-long experiment, it's obvious a new retirement savings model is necessary. The case against the current system starts with horrific statistics about the vulnerability of soon-to-be retirees. Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. Almost half of middle-class workers will be poor or near-poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day. Our do-it-yourself pension system has failed because it expects individuals to know when when they will lose their job, get sick, get divorced, lose a spouse and eventually die. Few realize that to maintain living standards into old age, we need roughly 20 times our annual income in financial wealth. If you're earning $100,000 the day you retire, you'll need to have savd $2 million above and beyond what you'll get from Social Security if you want to continue the lifestyle you're used to. That number may sound exaggerated, but people underestimate the high costs of aging. Consider this: If you start saving for retirement at age 25, you'll need to hold on to 7 cents of every dollar you earn and your investments will need to earn 3 percent after inflation and fees, if you hope to get to the magic number. If you didn't start saving until you were 55, you'll need to keep 30 cents of every dollar and you might make it. Scared? Good. We need that fear to motivate us to get real. The coming retirement income security crisis was not caused by a set of isolated individual behaviors; the system was simply never realistic. We need government-mandated, guaranteed retirement accounts on top of Social Security. These would be professionally managed with a guaranteed rate of return paid out as annuities. This is a sensible way to get an aging society prepared for the future. Afraid of mandates? For most, the alternative to a successfully executed retirement plan is much scarier. Hobson: Teresa Ghilarducci is the Bernard Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

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(Reuters) - CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton said on Friday he is leaving the once-dominant cable news network, which has struggled in the ratings race in recent years.

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A few weeks back, we noted how ridiculous it was that Senator Dianne Feinstein seemed a lot more upset that information about questionable US activities abroad was being leaked than she was about the fact that the US was involved in questionable activities abroad. And, now the Senate Intelligence Committee (of which Feinstein is the chair) has pushed out new rules targeting those who leak information to the press (what most of us call whistleblowing). The Secrecy News blog does a good job

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Very nice report via Business Insider. I don’t concur with all of it, but its quite well done, and worth discussing:     The Truth About Gold

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VisualCapitalist has released a stunning new infographic on global gold mines and deposits rankings for 2012, based on the research of National Resource Holdings. The graphic looks at deposit sizes and grades of the world’s biggest and most promising mines. The research looks at the rarity of a modern 1 million + oz gold mine, Read the Rest...

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Jeremy Hobson: So we've heard that we're not working hard enough. We've heard why we should make little kids work harder. We've heard about our shared history of hard work. But forget all that for a second. Because there are some people out who think we've got this all wrong. Maybe we're working too hard -- and what we could really use is a vacation. Sally Herships has that part of the story. Sally Herships: So how hard do Americans work? I took a walk through New York City's Grand Central Station and asked some people. Herships: What's a typical workday for you, from what time to what time? Man 1:I get up at six and I check e-mail for a few hours. And then work until about six. And then maybe an hour at home when I... Herships: So hold on a second -- can you add that up for me? How many hours are you working? Man 1:I don't know. I don't want to add it up. Herships: So do you feel like you get enough vacation? Man 2:No. We get no vacation here. In the past, I have worked Christmas Eve, Easter, Thanksgiving. I can't even remember, I'm pretty much here all the time. Everyone I spoke to had the same story. We work lots and lots of hours and get very little vacation. So does anyone get enough vacation? Oh, right -- the Europeans. I asked some of my European Facebook friends how much vacation time they get. There's the Spanish. They get about: Spanish man: Twenty-two days per year. Not including more time for holidays like Christmas. The Germans: German woman: In my current job as a research scientist, we get 30 days of vacation time. That's one month. Then there are the Italians: Italian man: Five weeks. The average vacation time in Italy is five weeks. Then the French: American expat in France: I live in France and I get nine weeks of vacation, not including holidays. Au revoir. The Austrian contact I had was, ironically, on vacation. If you're feeling envious right about now, you might be interested in an organization called Take Back Your Time. It's a policy group fighting American overwork. John de Graaf is the executive director. Herships: I guess the first question is do Americans work too hard? John de Graaf: I don't know about too hard -- I think they work too hard too -- but I certainly think they work too much. In 2009, de Graaf introduced a bill, the Paid Vacation Act. It would have made paid vacation required under federal law, but it didn't go over so well. de Graaf: You would have thought we were calling for the end of western civilization as we know it. The bill died in Congress not long after it was introduced. De Graaf says the average American works between 200 and 400 hours more every year than the average western European. You'd think that would make us more productive, but it doesn't. de Graaf: Because every business seems to think that its short-term profits come from working people as hard and intensely as possible. But working people too hard can create big problems. de Graaf says the more hours we work, the less time we have to relax, pet the dog, exercise and spend time with our friends and families. He says all that affects our health. He notes: Americans are almost twice as likely to get heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer than western Europeans. Which is expensive for companies because the cost of health care in the U.S. is so high. de Graaf: But it's also higher because their workers are less healthy. Which perpetuates a problematic cycle. High health care costs encourage companies to ask fewer workers to do more work meaning less free time. Remember I said earlier everyone I met in Grand Central told me they don't get enough vacation? Well it wasn't quite true. New Yorker Cecilia Acevedo says she gets enough time off. Cecilia Acevedo: I actually do. Only because I'm a registered nurse, and I'm a per diem nurse, so I work and I play at the same time. Acevedo says she's already been on two vacations this year to the Dominican Republic. Herships: And do you get benefits? Acevedo: That's the problem -- I don't. I have no insurance and I'm 65 years old. So she told me next month she's starting a new, full-time job -- with benefits. Hopefully it'll have enough vacation to let her take the third holiday she's already planned for this year. In New York, I'm Sally Herships for Marketplace.

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Jeremy Hobson: Today we're going to go right to the core of the American economy, and every economy, really. And every job, and every household and every task that we do every day. I'm talking about hard work. It's what defined this country at its birth -- and it's part of what has made us stand out from the rest of the world. But if you turn on the news these days, you might hear reports that our hard work ethic is going away. Montage of news reports: After a full day's work of picking sweet potatoes, these employees will take home at least $100 today. Certainly a lot of work, but work that farmers say normal Americans just won't do. They wanted a position, not a job. What kind of jobs are employing they can't fill with Americans? Doing a lot of jobs that I think you can argue Americans wouldn't do. So is that really true? Have we lost our hard work ethic? And how do we get it back? Today on the show, we're going to explore hard work: Who does it? Who doesn't? And why it's crucial to our economy and our country. We're gonna start at the south end of the 110 freeway here in Southern California in the city of San Pedro. We're at a fish market, which is kind of like a huge warehouse with a great water view. There are long glass cases filled with scallops, trout and salmon. There are tourists and families lining up for trays full of fried calamari. And there are hard workers everywhere -- scrubbing the floors, hauling the catch, gutting the fish and frying it up. Sergio Rodriguez: I cook the fajita trays, I barbecue the fish and fry the fish and I give out orders. Sergio Rodriguez is just 20 years old and he's been working here for four years in a job that his co-workers consider the hardest in the building. That's because he works all day in a small open kitchen with multiple cooks and -- this is the key -- a blazing hot stove. Rodriguez: Working in the heat... There's like 15 people in here at one time sometimes and you bump into everybody. Hobson: Do you feel like you get paid enough to do that kind of hard work? Rodriguez: Yeah, I think I do. I get paid pretty good. Hobson: How much? Rodriguez: I get paid $11.50 an hour. Hobson: So, do you think that your friends in other professions, doing other things, understand how hard of work you have to do everyday? Rodriguez: No. They think I got it easy. Seventeen-year-old Allyse Kadota works here during the summers. She sells fish to the customers. She says it's tiring but fun. Well, most of it. Allyse Kadota: It's usually on Sundays that I hate, because we have to clean everything with our hands. And it's just gross, 'cause it's just dirty and clean bathrooms and do all the dirty work. That's the hardest part for me, 'cause I don't know... I can't do that. Hobson: A lot of fish guts on the floor and stuff. Kadota: Yeah, but I'm kinda used to all the fish guts and all that. So it's not too bad in that respect. Hobson: Do you like to eat seafood? Kadota: Yeah. Hobson: Good. Kadota: It's not an option. The job that didn't look easy -- or particularly pleasant to us -- has been filled for the past 27 years by Chino Pena. He cuts the heads off of fish and scrapes off their scales. Hobson: So is that hard? Do you consider that hard? Chino Pena: Easy. Hobson: Gross? Pena: No. Hobson: No. Pena: It's like anything. When you peel a chicken... You ever peel a chicken? Hobson: I usually don't, no. I usually get the store-bought ones that are pre... Pena: You never get a light chicken? Hobson: No. Pena: Oh my... Hobson: So that's it: You just cut it open and slice it down the middle and you're done? Pena: Done. Chino slaps five pounds of fish on the table in front of me, splatters a little fish blood on my shirt. Hobson: So you brought one for me. Pena: Two. If you mess up one, you get another one. Hobson: If I screw it up, I get another for a second time. Got it. So what am I doing here? Chino hands me a metal device that's sort of like a cheese grater. Hobson: So we're just cutting off the scales here. It's not the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'd probably feel differently after about 20 minutes of this -- let alone eight hours. Hobson: How many times do you have to do this over the course of a day? Pena: A day? All day long? Hobson: How many fish? Pena: How many fish? No idea, you never get an idea. Hobson: A hundred? Pena: Maybe more? Hobson: More, wow. Did I do a good job? Pena: You do beautiful, man. See that? Beautiful isn't the word I'd use, neither is the "e" word, but that's exactly how the owner of the fish market, Tommy Amalfitano, describes it. Tommy Amalfitano:The job is easy. You're scalin' the fish, workin' hard is just what we do. Puttin' up with all the other people that I have to work with around me, that's the hard part. Hobson: What would you say is the hardest job in this place? Amalfitano: I don't consider any job hard. Hobson: You don't think any of them are hard to do? Amalfitano: But it's hard as far as a person has never done it before. Hobson: There would be a lot of people who would not think that it's fun to clean a fish or scale a fish. Amalfitano: That's correct, a lot of people say "no way Jose" and they run like heck. Hobson: Do you think other people, when they come in, think that it's hard? Amalfitano: Definitely. They all think it's hard. Hobson: Why do you think that is? Amalfitano: Well, because most people don't like to get their hands dirty, number one. Everybody wants to be behind a computer. I don't know how a computer is going to fillet the fish for the people, I don't know if the computer's gonna tell anybody that the fish is fresh. I don't know how anybody's going to cook the fish for 'em. I don't know how anybody... All these guys are computer geeks, they make a lot of money -- God bless 'em, they don't have to work very hard. But I think we're healthier. Hobson: You don't think they don't have to work very hard. Amalfitano: I think they work hard in their field, as far as mentally hard, they work a lot harder than we do. Hobson: But in terms of physical labor... Amalfitano: But in terms of physical labor, we work much harder. Hobson: What would you say is a comparable job to this in terms of hard work? Amalfitano: I just had cement laid in my house. Those guys worked hard. I've never seen anybody milk a cow with that much... They were up in the middle of the night milking the cows, they have to fee the cows. That must be a hard job. THey have to put up with the smell. I don't particularly like the smell. Just like anybody else that comes in, if they came from the farm, and they said, "Hey, this place smells." Well, if I went to your farm, I'd say, "Your farm smells." I mean, it's just what you're used to having and not having. Hobson: How do you teach a work ethic to your employees? Amalfitano: The work ethic is taught by everybody in here, not just me. Because everybody has to clean fish, everybody has to sweep the floor, everybody has to wash the walls -- everybody has to do everything. Hobson: You know, when I look around here, as probably with any business that's within the food industry, there are a lot of Latinos working here. And I wonder if the work ethic is different with the people with that heritage, and let's say, somebody who was raised in Kansas? Amalfitano: No, not necessarily. If you come here and work in this place, I don't care what nationality you are, where you come from -- you're gonna work. So it doesn't make any difference, 'cause we've had a lot of different people from all ethnic backgrounds, everything. They work. Hobson: Final question: If I were to offer you the chance tomorrow to switch all of this and go take a high-paying lawyer job in some office building, would you take the switch? Amalfitano: I'd throw you outta here. Ashley Andrews: Hello. Hobson: Hi, I'm Jeremy Hobson. How are you? Andrews: Jeremy! Ashley! Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming. Go ahead and have a seat. Well now we've come to a very different place in search of hard work. It's at the other end of the 110 freeway in Sierra Madre, just north of Los Angeles. We're at a law firm called Hoffman and Andrews. Lawyers, of course, can make a lot more money for the hard work that they do. And a lot of them don't want to talk about it. We contacted several lawyers at large firms and they were afraid to talk to us about their workloads for fear of being off-loaded. But then we found Ashley Andrews. who's a partner here at Hoffman Andrews. She used to work at a big firm, putting in 12 hour days, sometimes six or seven days a week. Then she decided to become her own boss, which means less money for now, but probably an easier life. Andrews: I don't think you become an attorney for the compensation. I think you are an attorney because you like the challenge and you like helping people. Quite honestly, the compensation isn't worth it. Hobson: It isn't worth it. Andrews: Correct. Hobson: Because a lot of people that work in those big firms, especially when they get right out of law school in the major cities are making upwards of $160,000 a year. Andrews: They're making upwards of $160,000 a year, and they don't sleep at nighttime, they have significant health problems, I think; their families suffer. It's not worth the income. If you were to divide the number of hours that we work by our salary, I would think that we probably make, if not minimum wage, less than minimum wage. Hobson: Oh come on. Andrews: Oh it's true. Hobson: Really? Andrews: I believe so. Hobson: It's funny, because parents love when their kids say they're going to be a lawyer. Andrews: I'm sure parents do, until their kids actually become an attorney, and they don't see them and then they change their minds. Hobson: Get yourself outside of the legal field and look at the economy as a whole. What is a comparable field in terms of the amount of work that you have to do? Andrews: I would probably say an emergency room doctor. Hobson: Hm. Andrews: Because you have the pace, you have the split-second decisions that you need to make and you're dealing with very very critical issues in people's lives, where if you make a wrong decision, you can screw them up permanently. Hobson: A lot of pressure. Andrews: A lot of pressure. Hobson: If I were to offer you the opportunity right now to switch places and take a job that pays a lot less, but spend the day scaling fish at a fish market in San Pedro, would you take it? Andrews: No. Hobson: Why not? Andrews: Because it doesn't offer the intellectual challenge that brings me to work everyday, that makes me wake up in the morning excited for my day and it doesn't offer the same opportunity to take care of people, share with them through a very difficult place in their life and help them. So a few minutes ago, I mentioned the "e" word -- easy -- well you just heard Ashley use a more important e-word when it comes to work ethic -- that would be "excited."

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Today Egon von Greyerz told King World News that going forward the world is going to witness, “...unprecedented wealth destruction.” Greyerz, who is founder and managing partner at Matterhorn Asset Management in Switzerland, also said to KWN that gold will soar but in the midst of the rise, “There will be failing economies, higher unemployment, more QE, and extraordinary levels of social unrest.”  Here is what Greyerz had to say about the ongoing financial crisis and where we are headed:  “Right now the world is on the edge. When Draghi says something it hits the wire and gold goes up and the dollar goes down. Market participants are sloshing money around from currency to currency, but, in the end, all of the currencies will experience a massive decline.”

Read more: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/7/27_Greyerz_-_Expect_Frightening_Wealth_Destruction_As_Gold_Soars.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth slowed in the second quarter as consumers spent at their slowest pace in a year, increasing pressure on policymakers to do more to bolster the recovery.

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Doc’s Deal Of The Day SMALL STACKER DAY!! 1oz Silver Buffalo’s ONLY 99 CENTS OVER SPOT!! FOR ANY QUANTINTY!! AND $5.99 DOMESTIC SHIPPING ON ALL BUFFALO ORDERS!! *Not able to be combined with any other offers or discounts.   Get Your Phyzz From The Doc “Nothing fancy.  Just a telephone and low prices.”   Call Now Read the Rest...

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The U.S. home-vacancy rate, a measure of properties empty and for sale, fell to the lowest level since 2006 as demand for housing improved and lenders slowed property repossessions.The rate declined to 2.1 percent in the second quarter from 2.2 percent in the previous three months and 2.5 percent a year earlier, the Census Bureau said today in a report from Washington. A gauge that measures the share of Americans who own their homes rose to 65.5 percent from a 15-year low of 65.4 percent in the prior quarter.

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JPMorgan Chase allegedly called John and Anna Canaday 15 to 75 times a week between 2009 and 2012, claiming they were at risk of losing their home to foreclosure, according to a lawsuit filed by the couple earlier this month. The Canadays, both over 65 years old, claim they aren't late on their mortgage payments

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(Reuters) - CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton said on Friday that he was leaving the once-dominant cable news network, which has struggled in the ratings in recent years, on December 31.

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