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

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.