Ahead of G-20, How Are World Economies Faring?

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• JIM LEHRER:

  And still to come on the NewsHour tonight: state secrets and national security; and trimming overcharge fees.

  That follows economics correspondent Paul Solman's preview of the economic summit convening in Pittsburgh tomorrow. He starts off in a very unlikely place.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  Last week's health and beauty show at New York's Javits Center, a gathering less exclusive than the G-20, perhaps, but colorful enough and every bit as focused on global prosperity.

  From a Canadian cosmetics firm…

• JOE SCHWARCZ:

  Being a chemist…

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  … trying to conjure up business with a chemistry sideshow to the Tahiti booth, native oils their specialty…

  Hello there.

• WOMAN:

  Hi.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  … to an Arkansas beauty queen, sporting a 10-pound dress of fragrant rubber bands.

  Excuse me. I don't mean to intrude, but, yes, what smell is that?

• WOMAN:

  Sweet pea.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  So, on the cusp of the G-20 meeting, and just one year after global collapse, how's the world economy doing?

  Poland?

• MARTA WITKOWSKA, BELL PPHU, Poland:

  After a few months, everything got better.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  France?

• ANTOINE DAUBY, Naturex, France:

  It seems like people are gaining more confidence, and it starts slowly again.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  Canada's OK, too.

• JOE SCHWARCZ:

  We are coming back.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  And South Korea, whose economy was shrinking dramatically just a few months ago, is again rising.

  Is it getting better, yes?

• JAMES LEE, Taptech Massager, South Korea:

  Yes, it's a little bit getting better.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  James Lee makes the super-pounding massager.

  It's like pounding on my back now, ba-doom, ba-doom.

  It debuted at an unpropitious moment, last October.

  Did you have any sales at all in October? No. No?

• JAMES LEE:

  No.

• PAUL SOLMAN:

  No sales? When did you start to have sales?

• JAMES LEE:

  Actually, just from the March.