Who needs the Super Bowl when you can field a team led by all stars like Ben Bernanke who flex brain power over brawn in the fantasy league for economists? It started as an April Fool’s joke, but the virtual game for building your ideal economics team to compete against other teams of highly ranked economists is REAL. It was launched by the Ideas Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

It’s called the RePEc Fantasy League, named for the REsearch Papers in EConomics, a database and author service that collects and disseminates the latest research in Economics and related sciences. RePEc also generates a monthly ranking of economists and players draft or draw their team from the ranking pool. Deceased economists are not included in league, so roll over John Maynard Keynes, you’ve been benched.

Douglass C. North

We’d love to hear from anyone who is active in the Econ Fantasy League.

Have you drafted or traded any Wash U economists? Who’s hot?

Nobel Prize winner and WUSTL Professor Doug North would be my first pick.

Photo credits: Keynes, NPR; North, WUSTL news