Nineteen months is not enough time for the kind of change necessary to take place, when the reasons for the pain we're experiencing right now have been in place since the 1980s, when we ceased being a manufacturing economy and, instead, became a service economy.
Hit the nail right on the head there, Karen, without a healthy manufacturing sector, any economy is going to struggle. Past governments may be partly to blame, for allowing it, but the large manufacturing corporations should shoulder 99% of the blame for the stagnant economy... without a healthy proportion of manufactured goods to trade, the balance of payments is never going to add up because too much then has to be imported.
Shoot, I only ever did high school economics, and even I know that. Makes you wonder what political and industry leaders are thinking, doesn't it. And without a good proportion of manufacturing jobs, unemployment rises significantly, meaning there are fewer customers with the propensity to pay, meaning those remaining manufacturers end up with surpluses they either have to mark down significantly or melt down a write off.
Maybe one day somebody with the power to effect change will get it right. 
I shan't be holding my breath, though.
