It may seem puzzling that poverty persists in our modernized world, where science is advancing, technology is progressing, and education is improving. My simple answer is that it is stock that determines poverty: It requires huge effort, time, and money for investments in such stock variables as human capital, physical capital, infrastructure, social capital, and intellectual capital. The question may arise whether foreign aid can provide sufficient funding for the required investments. I will, however, show that foreign aid is far from enough. I will also point out that a more fundamental problem is that we do not know where to allocate resources to promote agricultural development and industrialization. Furthermore, recent analyses in development economics are unlikely to contribute to the construction of effective development strategies.