Greed is still good, even when it’s done so much bad.

In this fiscal crisis, bailout is talked one day, then punishment the next. President Barack Obama supports a $500,000 salary cap on bailed-out executives for this latter reason.

Trust us, there are few finer visions than a trussed-up Wall Street fat-cat being forced to accept a massive pay cut. After their dogged pursuit of excesses caused our economy to crumble, it would be satisfying to welcome them, kicking and screaming, into our proletarian class.

But then again, it was reckless immediate gratification that also spurred this recession. We can’t do things in the short-term to make us feel good, which might have repercussions later. We can’t just run up the balance on our vengeance Visa.

Salary limitations are antithetical to American business, especially Wall Street. Transforming its atmosphere from plunder to parity removes a driving force that makes our markets work. Profit is the gasoline that powers our economic engine.

By no longer saying the sky is the limit on salaries and demanding executives instead limit their reach to the nearest cloud, the administration runs the risk of further weakening a tattered industry by removing the most critical incentive for rebuilding its vitality.

America needs these greedy capitalists to do what they do best – make money. But responsibly, not theoretically, invisibly or fraudulently. We’ve had enough of that.

Instead of salary caps, the wiser approach is a speed governor, like the ones that stop high-performance automobiles from reaching ludicrous speeds. Here’s an analogy Wall Street types might get: Sure, your Lamborghini can go 275 mph, but its governor only allows 150 mph. Here’s the analogy for the rest of us: Wall Street needs a speed limit.

The limit, in this case, is stronger regulation from the agencies that should have done that all along. After last week’s Congressional hearings on Bernard Madoff, who defrauded clients here in Maine and throughout the world, confidence in the Securities and Exchange Commission should be shattered.

More potent oversight – including agencies that don’t ignore blatant investor fraud when it is hand-delivered to them – can have the same impact on Wall Street executives as President Obama’s salary cap: Forcing fiscal responsibility on the wholly irresponsible.

No more inflated bonuses for poor performance. Want to redecorate your office? Here’s the catalog for Staples and OfficeMax. Private jet? Here’s your bus fare. And we’ve canceled your corporate car service, too. The subway runs almost all day and night.

But a salary cap is too far. Yes, executives put the country in a hole. This means they’re responsible for getting us out. So far, with the bailouts, taxpayers have thrown them a lifeline, which they must now use to ascend the economy toward daylight.

It will be an uncapped ability to earn that will keep them climbing.