Federal Reserve meetings before the crisis were marked by frequent laughter

Evidence

What if the people who helped bring on the crisis were quite literally laughing all the way to the bank as the financial system approached the precipice? Gales of merriment apparently rocked the meetings of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, as revealed by a tabulation of all the recorded instances of stipulated “[laughter]” in meetings transcripts from 2001 to 2006, reproduced in Figure 1.1. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 28

Categorization

• CANDY: The ‘[laughter]’ transcripts from FOMC meetings are a striking, darkly funny data point.
• SEED: Angle for an essay: quantitative analysis of laughter in elite pre-crisis deliberative bodies as a measure of complacency.
• XREF: connects to: FOMC transcripts show abundant laughter during the 2001-2006 bubble years — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 28