TY - JOUR AB - Purpose–The purpose of this article is to speculate about the reasons why our economic “game” may be broken.Design/methodology/approach–Essay.Findings–Businesses in the United States seem to be employing a shared mental model that makes sense at the level of the firm but which at the level of the economy, and the average American, does not seem to be working.Originality/value–Speculation about why rational decision‐making at the firm level that in the past has caused general welfare to increase no longer seems to be doing that. VL - 32 IS - 3 SN - 0275-6668 DO - 10.1108/02756661111122009 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/02756661111122009 AU - Marren Patrick PY - 2011 Y1 - 2011/01/01 TI - Prisoners' dilemma T2 - Journal of Business Strategy PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 50 EP - 52 Y2 - 2024/09/19 ER -