The recent wild ride of economic indicators has been likened to peering over a precipice. Everyone is looking over the edge and seems a bit unsteady, and rightfully so. There are no barriers to hold onto. Economic vertigo engulfs you and there is so much to be lost over the edge.

The confusion is even more pronounced as there seems to be agreement on the cause but less agreement on the recommended path to stability. Bluster is the political response of choice.

I don’t feel a great deal of sympathy for the executives that helped craft this teetering house of cards. I believe that even though finite boundaries of illegalities may not have been crossed, boundaries of professional malfeasance and decency certainly were.

There are some unseemly aspects of capitalism that are clearly deserving of criticism, but the primary driver in our current economic crisis resolves down to your basic varietal of greed. Greed is not restricted to our particular economic system of choice.

An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay is recognized, and generally respected, as a fundamental tenet of our economic system. A cliché that has provided the fuel for our economy’s get up and go. You go to work each day — bless you if you don’t have to — and exchange your knowledge and labor for a relatively fair level of compensation. This simple agreement between employee and employer has served as a cornerstone of economic reason and system stability.

Obviously there are some levels of disagreement on exactly what constitutes “an honest day’s work” or “an honest day’s pay” but in most situations we have some sense of the position of the opposition. Each side has a sense of proportion. Of course we might like a little more and the other side might like to pay a little less but we both understand this. We can collectively manage our expectations and get the job done.

It is difficult to categorically state that anyone makes more than he or she actually is worth but recently you have some fairly decent arguments for the debate. I could provide a listing here, but all you have to do is think of a recently failed or rescued financial institution and Google the compensation the respective CEO received for knowingly directing his company and our nation’s economy into the red.

I personally find this quivering economy frightening. I have generally followed the rules but now find that the value of my home is falling precipitously, and my 401(k) may be in jeopardy. Yikes!

I let my guard down and allowed my greed to ratchet up. I enjoyed the unreasonable increase in my home’s book value month to month. Home ownership was really a good investment. I should have recognized the storm warning signs, but even if I had I don’t know what I would have or could have done differently. I was along for the ride. I was paying my mortgage on schedule. I wasn’t marketing subprime mortgages.

I think most of us trust the customer-facing units of our economic institutions to be both ethical and responsible. We are dependent on that element of basic trust. Select members of the executive leadership of those institutions were neither responsible nor ethical and they should have been both.

The executive leadership was consumed with greed. Their greed might prevent a nice couple on the verge of retirement from comfortably settling in to those “golden years.” That distinct lack of ethical leadership might significantly diminish the value of my 401(k). There is some element of selfishness here and I don’t deny this. The health of the economy, or lack thereof, can quickly become personal.

That lack of ethical, reasonable executive leadership has caused our economy to raise a white flag and hope the cavalry rides in.

A select group of incredibly greedy and dishonest executive leaders abused the advantages of our economic system. They might have stayed on the legal side of the line but they were clearly outside the ethical boundaries that help define decency.

Kerry Killinger of Washington Mutual, Stanley O’Neal and John Thain of Merrill Lynch, Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers, Daniel Mudd of Fannie Mae, and Richard Syron of Freddie Mac all made more than they were worth. They all require sleep and food, and none walk on water. They didn’t do a good job. All were aware of the stench in Mahogany Row.

I really don’t begrudge them for making more than they are worth but I do resent the worth they took from others. I have always recognized the fact that life is not fair but it shouldn’t be disproportionally so. We all have basic responsibilities to ourselves and to each other.

(Gustafson lives in Napa.)