CHAMBER: Smokin their own Dope…
Local & National News | June 11, 2026
Pictured Above: Duncan Williams, Chamber Board Chair and Mike Keeney, Chamber Chairman's Circle Chair

The Greater Memphis Chamber is not a serious organization. The Chamber, along with their Chairman’s Circle donor organization, have for years, masqueraded around as a public economic development agency. The Chamber is a business association and not a good one at that, failing to represent the majority of their small business members with their corporate socialist policy stack. A policy stack favoring excessive tax abatements to major corporations while leaving small business behind.

And get this. At the Chamber’s recent semi-annual Chairman’s Circle event, Duncan Williams Chamber Board Chair and interim Chamber CEO announced that under the Chamber’s 2022 launched Prosper 2030 plan, that 22,000 jobs have been added to the local economy.

Williams and Mike Keeney, Chairman’s Circle Chair, are smokin their own dope. The fact is, that according to Bureau of Labor and Statistics, both the Memphis MSA and Shelby County have lost jobs. Memphis MSA, since 2022,  has lost approximately 17,000 jobs while Shelby County has lost 23,196 from 493,623 to 470,427 through 2025.

The former does not even account for recent WARN layoff announcements, post 2025, to include Kellog, IKEA, PMC, GXO and Nike. Not sure where the Chamber is getting their data. Per the article, the Chamber also claims to have added 937 advanced industries to the area. Not sure if that is a mistake or just another outrageous Chamber claim.

Anyway, the Chamber is not an organization that should be taken seriously by the public.

 

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