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Economic Report Of The President ... And Some Superhero Friends

Actor Tom Holland attends the <em>Spider-Man: Homecoming</em> press conference at Conrad Seoul Hotel on July 3, 2017, in Seoul, South Korea.
Chung Sung-Jun
/
Getty Images
Actor Tom Holland attends the Spider-Man: Homecoming press conference at Conrad Seoul Hotel on July 3, 2017, in Seoul, South Korea.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

Or the chance to pull a practical joke.

Pranksters included some whimsical credits buried in the fine print of an annual White House economic report, making it seem that Peter Parker and Aunt May had joined the staff of the president's Council of Economic Advisers.

Spider-Man's alter ego and his aunt are listed among the interns who contributed to the 705-page report, which is nearly a year in the making. Other high-profile interns listed include John Cleese of Monty Python fame, Star Trek character Kathryn Janeway and the uncaped Batman, Bruce Wayne — suggesting the CEA plays no favorites between the Marvel and DC Comics universes.

Martha Gimbel, research director at Indeed.com, was one of many economists who picked up on the stunt, tweeting, "The quality of interns at CEA is much better than when I was there."

"Who said economics has to be a dismal science," the council responded in its own tweet. "Our interns are indeed super heroes," it added in another tweet.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Horsley is NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent. He reports on ups and downs in the national economy as well as fault lines between booming and busting communities.