First of all, may we not be cursed with The Hype, otherwise known as being-blown-out-of-proportion-to-the-point-that-a-thing-can-only-disappoint.
I really don’t understand this simplistic search for a silver bullet that will catalyse development and “solve the problem of poverty”. Poverty is caused by a whole lot of different factors that are horribly specific in different contexts, so why assume that the addition of one variable, applied all over, is going to suddenly “cure” poverty? If a lot of the things I am reading is true (see this article by the writer of Why Doesn’t Microfinance Work?: The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism