One year ago, many commentators, including this newspaper, thought that a recession was around the corner in Canada and the United States.
Massive slumps had driven half of the world into recession. For the 350 million people in Indonesia and Russia, these became depressions on the scale of the economic collapse of the 1930s.
The middle classes were destroyed in both countries.
Sections of the poor in Indonesia were driven to eating bark.
In Russia, talk of starvation emerged as the winter approached.
The Brazilian economy teetered on the edge of a deep slump.
The stock markets in America and Canada went into their biggest dive of the decade.
Yet one year later, all this seems like a distant memory.
Asian economies are "on their feet again" says The Economist.
Peter Cook in The Globe says that "Suddenly, Europe feels better," as both France and Germany have returned to growth.
And in Canada, the economy grew at a pace of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, and 3.3 percent in the second.
The growth is real. It is creating jobs, even if many of these jobs are low-paying and with poor conditions.
But the growth is on an unstable foundation.
In Asia, it will take months and years of growth to undo the damage created in 1997 and 1998.
In Japan, there are still massive layoffs going on.
And in the background sits China with the biggest unemployment problem in world history.
In North America, we have argued in this paper that the American boom is a "parasitic" boom. The collapse in Asia and Russia caused a panic among investors the world over.
Billions of dollars flowed into the US, seen as the last "safe haven" -- a shelter from the storm happening overseas.
Some of these billions entered the United States invisibly.
A scandal is unfolding over the role of American banks in "laundering" money from Russia -- illegally taking money out of the country, and depositing it in the west, usually in the United States.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this has amounted to $200 billion, or almost $2-billion a month.
This capital flight exacerbated the crisis in Russia.
But it helped refloat an American economy burdened with unprecedented consumer and corporate debt.
And with America afloat, Canada booms, as 80 percent of this country's exports go to the United States.
It is unclear how long this situation can last.
A recovery in Asia could, ironically, destabilize the whole thing.
If Asia recovers sufficiently to become a magnet for the billions that are huddling in the American safe haven, the air could quickly come out of the economic bubble.
That is why, even in an economic boom, there is such a frenzy of activity to merge, privatize and downsize. Capitalists in every sector are looking over their shoulder at the deep instability of the system, and trying to pare costs in order to maximize profits.
We do not know how long this economic growth will last.
But while it does, it should be used by the leadership of every union to demand that finally, workers get our share.
A recent study by John Shields and Michael Burke of Ryerson University show that even after years of growth, ordinary Canadians are no better off.
"We found that part-time and temporary work, and low-paying jobs have replaced full-time, permanent positions. The kind of jobs that are being created are undermining the foundation for middle class life in Canada."
If the economy is fine -- then why aren't social services fine? Why aren't wages fine? Why aren't working conditions fine?
If the economy is fine -- then it is time to tax the rich, restore social services, and restore wages.