What's the future of macroeconomics? Does it lie in further development of the old-style models of rational optimizers and equilibrium, the dynamic stochastic general equilbrium (DSGE) models? Or will it instead be a new breed of agent-based computational economics (ABM), i.e. in computational simulations which don't restrict themselves to rational optimizing behavior, or to equilibrium? From what I see, the DSGE people -- the old guard, if you will, as this IS the current mainstream approach -- don't take the opponent very seriously. They seem to sneer and chuckle at ABM for its lack of mathematical rigor; they don't even prove theorems! BUT, I suspect, this is only because the DSGE people secretly know very little at all about ABM, about its potential, its power and flexibility, and especially, about how far it has been developed already, for exploring banking stability, monetary policy and so on. DSGE, as I see it, is doomed for sure. It's not going to be a fair fight. DSGE is the Titanic of economic methodology, already taking on water, its bow looming high in the air. Message to young economists: Don’t let your career go down with it!
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