Former Deputy Takes Over Bureau of Economic Analysis
The former deputy director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis has been named to head the federal organization that produces the benchmark GDP number for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Brian Moyer had been serving as acting director since May 2, when Steve Landefeld retired after 19 years leading the BEA.
Moyer first joined the bureau in 1993, and since then has held several positions, including associate director for industry accounts. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from American University.
Under his leadership, according to a release from the agency, BEA has made numerous advances in measuring and gauging the performance of the U.S. economy, including new measures of intangible and high-tech goods and services, expanded information on multinational companies and foreign direct investment, and more timely GDP statistics for states, metropolitan area and industries. Moyer has also played a key role in developing and improving international standards and guidelines used to prepare economic statistics worldwide.
Moyer started in his new status on September 21.
The bureau, which was created in 1972 but which traces its roots back to the Office of the Register of the Treasury in 1820, collects source data, conducts research and analysis, develops and implements estimation methodologies, and disseminates statistics to the public. The cornerstone of BEA’s statistics is the national income and product accounts, which feature the estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) and related measures. Along with the Census Bureau, BEA is part of the Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration.