The classic DSGE economic models did a pretty bad job of anticipating the crash, in part because they assumed a return to some form of market equilibrium. Fans of agent-based modelling (ABM), which have lots of autonomous agents following simple behavioural rules and adapting to their environment, think it could do a better job of simulating the effects of crashes, herd-like behaviour and other non-linear phenomena that characterised recent events.
Made by Lago di Garda, with thanks to Nadia. Padenghe, Italy 2010-07-21 client: The Economist Newspaper, London