H. Eugene Stanley writes in the December 2008 issue of the American Physical Society Newsletter (pdf).

Almost every physicist by now has heard of the fast-growing subdiscipline of "econophysics", a field characterized by collaborations between physicists and economists and focused on asking if new insights or even laws could emerge if the concepts and approaches of statistical physics were brought to bear on questions that originate in economics. And almost everyone, physicist or nonphysicist, has by now heard that the economies of every country–large or small, Eastern or Western–are witnessing truly huge fluctuations. So it is natural to ask

"Does econophysics have anything to say about the current financial/economic turmoil?"

The answer to this question is a resounding "Yes!" since econophysics is statistical physics applied to the economy, and fluctuations are the substance of statistical physics. In economics, the probability density function (pdf) of price changes has been studied for over 100 years, ever since the PhD thesis of Bachelier in 1900 analyzed real data–without benefit of computers. Then, to understand the pattern he witnessed, he introduced a model which today we call the drunkard's walk. This is the model immortalized to the general public in the aphorism "random walk down Wall Street."...