Poor countries have been affected by the crisis in various ways and more than previously thought. This study, based on research by developing country researchers, sheds some light on what is really happening at the country level, and goes beyond vulnerability studies or global forecasts. Why does affluence coexist with dire poverty not only across different continents but also within the same country or even the same city? Can traditional, low- productivity, subsistence societies be transformed into modern, high productivity, high-income nations? To what extent are the development aspirations of poor nations helped or hindered by the economic activities of rich nations? The series of the current global economic and financial crises especially in the USA and the European Stock Exchange Markets, in the international division of labour and the global distribution of economic and political power led by free markets economies; that clearly indicates the collapse of Adam Smith''s ideology and the Thatcher-Reagan free-market model that dominated thinking for 30 years has been discredited. A practical solution of the current ills is possible.