When people ask me what is wrong with our modern day economy, I respond that it is frenzied and out of balance.

In my book, Return to Order, I coined the term "frenetic intemperance" to describe a restless and reckless spirit inside modern economy that foments a drive to throw off legitimate restraints and gratify disordered passions. This frenetic intemperance, I explain, is where we went wrong.

But frenetic intemperance is an abstract concept. It is not immediately apparent as to what I mean. I am always on the lookout for examples or expressions that help to clarify the concept and make it more understandable to the man in the street.

I recently found such an example that goes a long way in explaining frenetic intemperance. It involved an article that described television viewing habits. It said that the average American adult spends 4 hours, 31 minutes watching television each day. That might seem like a lot of viewing but it only tells half the story.

The television screen represents yesterday's entertainment. People today also look at other screens and monitors. And so, the article notes, in addition to the television viewing time, the average American adult spends yet another 5 hours, 16 minutes looking at other computer and phone screens each day.

The total of 9 hours, 47 minutes is an impressive amount of time before any screen. It indicates a certain lack of restraint that is characteristic of frenetic intemperance. There are missing priorities in these habits where the person gives in to the temptation to be constantly checking his devices. An economy that supports this kind of obsessive behavior is a clarifying example of what is meant by frenetic intemperance.

However, the article ended with an even more dramatic example of frenetic intemperance. It told the story of a man with three very young children who were fully hooked up to their screens. Two of the three could not even read yet they all had wi-fi-enabled mobile devices and could stream videos to them.

The father gloried in the fact that, "They expect to be able to see whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want."

This is a perfect expression to describe frenetic intemperance. It is an economy that throws off restraint and encourages a regime in which you seek out whatever you want, whenever you want and wherever you want.

This whatever-whenever-wherever economy is what is throwing everything out of balance. People must have everything now, regardless of the consequence. If it cannot be had immediately, there are always credit options to make it happen. If that does not work, there is always big government to turn things once considered privileges or luxuries into entitlements.

When society is not virtuous, a whatever-whenever-wherever economy leads to an economy that is run by the disordered whims and passions. Reason is no longer in control and consequently markets frequently crash. Self-interest alone comes to rule in accordance with personal preferences. Such a conception of life calls to mind the ideas of Scottish philosopher Dave Hume who famously wrote, "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them."

The problem is that the passions can be true tyrants that do not respect reality. Real economy should be run by reason and temperance. It should lead men to virtue. This requires restraint, foresight and effort. It does not exclude the orderly passions and preferences that are part of the lives of men. However, these very human and necessary elements are secondary and cannot dominate.

Our problem today is our whatever-whenever-wherever economy is taking us to our ruin. It is filling us with frenetic intemperance. What we need is a return to order.

About John Horvat II: John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker and author "Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society - Where We've Been, How We Got Here and Where We Need to Go," (www.returntoorder.org). For more than two decades he has been researching and writing about the socio-economic crisis in the United States.

One of the poorest, most troubled countries in the world, Pakistan, has also produced some of our bravest, most inspiring young leaders, says Zulfiqar Rashid, (www.zulfiqarrashid.com), a Pakistan native and U.S. artist and businessman.

"Malala Yousafzai is only the most recent example," says Rashid, referring to the 16-year-old advocate for girls' education who was shot by the Taliban a year ago.

Rashid, who frequently travels to Pakistan and around the world, says he continues to see appalling treatment of children in his journeys. His new book focuses on a particularly cruel practice in Indo Asian countries. In "The Rat-boys of Karalabad," he writes about young beggars whose heads and limbs are tightly bound when they're very young to stunt their growth. The practice makes the disfigured children more effective beggars at religious shrines, helping enrich those who control the shrines.

"The 'rat-boys' are, sadly, very real. In my book, the person who stands up to this evil is a boy who would ultimately have benefited from it," Rashid says. "While he is fictional, he symbolizes the many young people in the world whose passion for doing good holds an extraordinary power that often goes unrecognized."

Today's story is Malala, but Rashid says the tale of another young Pakistani children's rights advocate illustrates just how far-reaching children's influence can be.

• At 10 years old, Iqbal Masih crusaded against bonded servitude. When he was 4 years old, Iqbal's impoverished Pakistani family sold him into bonded servitude for a $12 loan. For six years, he sat chained to a loom weaving carpets for 14 hours a day six days a week. He and the other children were forbidden from talking and were beaten if they were slow, fell asleep, or made a mistake. They were fed little so that their fingers would stay small enough to work the tiny knots in the carpets.

Iqbal escaped the factory in 1992 with help from the Bonded Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan, and began speaking out on behalf of child laborers and their right to an education. His revelations about the carpet industry gained worldwide attention, and he's credited with freeing 3,000 children from factories.

• 7th-graders build a school for Iqbal. In December 1994, Iqbal visited Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Mass., at the invitation of teacher Ron Adams, who wanted to give his seventh-graders a deeper understanding of international economics and human rights. Iqbal, the same age as the American students, was half their size - his growth stunted by malnutrition and confinement - but tremendously courageous. He knew his actions were angering the carpet barons, who might retaliate.

Four months after that visit, Iqbal was shot and killed while riding his bicycle in his village.
The outraged Beacons Meadows students insisted on doing something to remember Iqbal and decided to raise $5,000 to build a school in his village. "I thought, 'Impossible!' but the kids never doubted they could do it," Adams said recently.

They faxed and emailed (with a borrowed computer from Amnesty International) requests to schools around the country seeking $12 donations for A School for Iqbal. By 1997, when they stopped fundraising, they'd raised $147,000, which built and helped fund the school for three years. Today Chanaan No. 3 is a self-sufficient campus for working children.

• Operation: Day's Work - kids helping kids around the world. A School for Iqbal grew into a student-led charitable organization that has spread to six other nations. Co-founded in the United States by eight schools with the help of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ODW turns 15 years old this year.

Each year ODW students research charitable groups and projects benefiting kids in developing countries. They invite their favorites to apply for grant money, then debate the merits of the applicants and projects. Finally, they vote to decide their beneficiary for the year. Then students raise money to fund their grant. Last year, they paid tuition, room and board for 38 rescued child laborers through the Kenyan Schoolhouse Project.

Joining Operation: Days Work is free and open to schools with students in fifth- through 12th grades. Visit www.odwusa.org for information.

About Zulfiqar Rashid

Zulfiqar Rashid was born in Pakistan and lives in southern California. As a regular contributor to various newspapers, he has written extensively about his travels to Pakistan, and major figures in the Pakistani artistic and cultural scene.  Rashid is also an accomplished artist and calligrapher, whose art has been featured in the San Diego Union Tribune.  His works have been exhibited at galleries in San Diego, Del Mar, and La Jolla, as well as the San Diego Art Institute and the San Diego Port Authority's "I Madonnari" festival.

IRAs and annuities are growing in popularity as retirement investment options, according to recent surveys, but three financial experts warn they can have serious disadvantages.

"Last year, four out of 10 U.S. households had IRA accounts - that's up from 17 percent two decades ago," says CPA Jim Kohles, chairman of RINA accountancy corporation, (www.rina.com), citing an ICI Research survey. "But they can be bad for beneficiaries if you have a very large account."

Investment in annuities, touted as offering a potential guaranteed income stream, alsocontinue to grow with sales up 10 percent in the second quarter of this year.

"Annuities have several dark sides, both during your lifetime and for your beneficiaries," says wealth management advisor Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo, CEO of Pillar Wealth Management, (www.pillarwm.com). "My business partner, Chris Snyder, and I wouldn't recommend investing in them."

Putting large amounts of money in either annuities or IRAs can have serious tax consequences for your heirs, say Kohles, Ashoo and attorney John Hartog of Hartog & Baer Trust and Estate Law, (www.hartogbaer.com).

"If you want to ensure your beneficiaries get what you've saved, you need to take some precautions," Hartog says.

The three offer these suggestions:

• Take stock of your assets - you could be worth more than you think: If your estate is worth more than $5.25 million (for couples, $10.5 million), your beneficiaries face a 40 percent estate tax and federal and state income taxes, says Kohles, the CPA. "It can substantially deplete the IRA," he says.

To avoid that, take stock of your assets now - you may have more than you realize when you take into account such variables as inflation and rising property values. Be aware of how close to that $5/$10 million benchmark you are now, and how close you'll be a few years from now.

"Consider vacation and rental properties, vehicles, potential inheritances," Kohles says.

Also, take advantage of the lower tax rates you enjoy today, particularly if they're going to skyrocket after your death. "A lot of people want to pay zero taxes now and that's not necessarily a good idea," he says. For instance, if you're at that upper level, consider converting your traditional IRA to a ROTH IRA and paying the taxes on the money now so your beneficiaries won't have to later.

• No matter what your estate's value, avoid investing in annuities. Wealth management adviser Ashoo warns annuities, offered by insurance companies, can cost investors an inordinate amount of money during their lifetime and afterward.

"Insurance companies try to sell customers on the potential for guaranteed income, a death benefit paid to beneficiaries, or a 'can't lose' minimum return, but none of thosecompensates for what you have to give up," he says.

That includes being locked in to the annuity for five to seven years with hefty penalties for pulling out early; returns that fall far short of market investments on indexed annuities; high management fees for variable annuities; declining returns on fixed-rated annuities in their latter years; and giving up your principle in return for guaranteed income.

"If you own annuities and have a substantial estate, there are smart ways to unwind them to minimize damage," Ashoo says.

• Consider spending down your tax-deferred IRA early. If you're in the group with $5 million/$10 million assets, it pays to go against everything you've been taught and spend the IRA before other assets, says attorney Hartog.

"It's a good vehicle for charitable gifts if you're so inclined. And if you're 70½ or older, this year you can direct up to $100,000 of your IRA-required minimum distribution to charity and it won't show up as taxable income," Hartog says. (That provision is set to expire next year.)

You might also postpone taking Social Security benefits until you're 70½ and withdraw from your IRA instead. "That willmaximize your Social Security benefit - you'll get 8 percent more."

Finally, anyone who has accumulated some wealth will do best coordinating their financial planning with a team of specialists, the three say.

As a CPA, Kohles is focused on minimizing taxes; wealth management adviser Ashoo's concern is the client's goals and lifestyle; and lawyer Hartog minimizes estate taxes.

"We get the best results managing tax consequences and maintaining our clients' lifestyles by working together," Hartog says.

About Jim Kohles, Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo & John Hartog: Jim Kohles is chairman of the board of RINA accountancy corporation of Walnut Creek, Calif. He is a certified public accountant specializing in business consulting, succession and retirement planning, and insurance.Haitham "Hutch" Ashoo is the CEO of Pillar Wealth Management, LLC, in Walnut Creek, Calif., specializing in client-centered wealth management. John Hartog is a partner at Hartog & Baer Trust and Estate Law in Orinda, Calif.He is a certified specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law, and taxation law. All three advise ultra affluent families.

"You've come a long way, baby," wasn't just an ad for Virginia Slims cigarettes during the late 1960s - it was also a dubious signifier for the gains women had made in society.

Since then, women have continued the march for progress, making huge gains in the academic and professional sectors. But have Western women lost something along the way?

"As women, we have spent so much time and effort living up to the standards of a patriarchal society that we've almost completely disconnected from our own deepest, authentic truth," says Leela Francis, author of "Woman's Way Home: Navigating Your Path to Embodied Power," (www.WomansWayHome.com), which includes techniques and tools from her Vividly Woman Embodied Leader Tools and Training.

" 'What do women want?' Sadly, many women today aren't even sure; but by tapping the power of her inner wisdom, a woman can have the life of her dreams."

One key component of birthing one's own dream life is harnessing your intuitive power, she says. This ability to distinguish between ego-driven wants and higher self-wisdom is crucial so that you are making choices in alignment with your personal integrity, she says.

So, just how does one accomplish that? Francis offers the following suggestions:

• Ego isn't bad or wrong, but we do need to be able to distinguish its voice from that of our intuition. The ego has its place; it's a necessary part of our self that allows us to function and strive, but we need to be able to identify what is driving us in each moment. Intuition is the awareness and acknowledgement of being more deeply and meaningfully connected to life. The ego is a self-advocating force that caters to external standards and often gets in the way of higher self-awareness. Learning to recognize the differences between these two voices is a profound way to create more ease and lessen suffering.

• Recognize when ego and intuition are pulling you in different directions. "Having witnessed the outcome of choosing ego over intuition enough times, I've seen how counterproductive ignoring intuitive wisdom can be," Francis says. "I can't help but notice that I sense the most friction when my ego is winning that inner tug of war." The ego is a perpetually hungry creature, never satisfied, whereas higher intuition has a contented nature that aligns with your personal integrity. Wisdom's signals are palpable, but we've become so masterful at ignoring them that we don't recognize them when they occur. Both the ego's plea and intuition's nudging are able to be sensed in one's body as distinctive body sensations. Listen inwardly for these sensations, for example, when someone is trying to sell you something questionable.

• Be available for those intuitive moments in which you can witness yourself, objectively, on every level. Intuitive power gives us a profound ability to see ourselves from a bird's eye view on every level - sensually, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. These intuitive moments don't have to be random; you can cultivate your mind to be more on the look out for sensations that are taking place in your body in each moment, and especially in situations that require you to make a difficult decision or choice. Be aware of your body as it goes through its daily activities and, at the same time, consider all levels of your self when doing so. This higher awareness enables women to have all aspects of their selves peacefully coexist and work together for a more whole and happy life.

About Leela Francis

Leela is the founder and director of Vividly Woman Embodied Leader Tools and Training. A facilitator of groups and individuals for more than 20 years, she's an expert in the field of body consciousness and soulful personal expansion.  Along with her trained staff and apprentices, Leela facilitates Vividly Woman workshops and retreats at beautiful nature resorts all over the continent and appears regularly as a speaker and contributing facilitator at other live & virtual events. Leela divides her time between Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, and the rest of North America.