I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gapfest, end of days edition.

This is also the daily podcast from Slate.com for Wednesday, September 24th, 2008.

On today's program, we're going to talk about the financial meltdown, a trillion and counting,

the ominous death of David Foster Wallace, and we revisit the lovable comedy stylings of Gates

and Seinfeld. Joining me today, our Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner, hello, Julia.

Hi, Julia. Hi, and our film critic, Dana Stevens. Hi, Dana. Hello, Stephen. Well,

the financial meltdown, Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke have gone hand in hand to Congress looking for $700 billion

to clean up the balance sheets of the major investment banks in America. As we speak, that program is

expanding. Everyone wants a handout now from the auto industries

to the student loan industry. I have a question for the two of you. I followed this obsessively.

So, of course, I have all kinds of like Cassandra-like ravings playing in my head 24-7 right now.

But my sense from both of you is that you're not especially panicked.

Well, I guess I'm still sort of waiting to know what it is that we need to be panicked about. I mean, for the moment, all the obsessive coverage of this is still about industry players and about how investment banks are going to save their asses. And given the fact that, luckily, I don't have a mortgage that's in foreclosure, I haven't quite yet seen how it's going to trickle down to the rest of us. So for the moment, no, still hanging on to some calm. Yeah, I had a brief moment of panic

sort of in the, but basically, like most people, it seems like I had a brief moment of panic

before the U.S. government said, okay, we're going to step in here, guys, and pay out all this

money and try and settle things down.

And when the market seemed to settle after that, I had less sense of personal woe.

I think at the moment, I'm most panicked about the bailout that's being rushed through Congress,

because it just seems to me that there's no way something that's put together this quickly with the sweeping powers that seem to be

in it is going to be efficient or solve the financial problems in a way that rewards people who

haven't done anything wrong and make sure that the people who've gotten us into this mess don't walk

away with huge profits. Right. I mean, there appear to be enormous moral hazards built into this bailout.

...