Generation Broke; Europeans are discovering what Americans know all too well: the seductive power and personal risk of easy credit.

Byline: Carla Power, With Emily Flynn in London, Stefan Theil in Berlin, Barbie Nadeau in Rome and Marie Valla in Paris

America is the land of the credit-guzzling consumer living in the now, and Europe is the realm of thrifty savers taking the long, sober view. True or false? This widely held stereotype is increasingly inaccurate. In a recent hit song, German techno star Christian Kreuz coined a new motto for the New Europe: Generation Broke. "When you think it'll go on forever, it's already gone," sings Kreuz. "When we're all broke, we'll no longer be alone."

Europeans, it seems, have finally discovered the lure of low interest rates and plastic money. In Britain, credit-card debt has doubled in the past five years; mortgage lending is up by nearly 300 percent. The average Briton now carries around 4,000 euro in debt, 40 percent less than the average American, but also makes a lot less money. According to Morgan Stanley, the average household debt in Britain is now 110 percent of its income--even more than the United States (102 percent) but still not the highest in Europe, a distinction that belongs to the Netherlands (131 percent). The buzzwords of Europe today are "hedonism and spend, spend, spend," says Richard Scase, author of "Living in the Corporate Zoo." "People are not investing in pensions, and have no trust in fund managers, stock markets or even employers in the long term. So you spend because you don't know what the future is going to be like."

The credit pushers are everywhere. The German Internet is full of come-ons like one crowing: happy credit! not just easy, but cheap! And the pitches are coming not just from small-time Internet hawkers. At a London branch of HSBC, the world's second largest bank, an ad presents images of a red sports car, a sofa and a bridegroom, and beckons: come in and ask for a personal loan. make your dreams come true.

One result is that consumers are getting into debt trouble even in markets like Germany, where consumer spending is still very weak. The number of personal bankruptcies rose from 13,000 in 2001 to 34,000 in Germany last year, while the average amount owed fell by half, to 90,000 euro--suggesting that increasingly, it is less-wealthy people who are going bankrupt. The top two reasons: high unemployment (11.1 percent) and more aggressive marketing of consumer credit. Schuldnerberatung , or debtor counseling, has become a major government service in a country where penny-pinching was until recently considered a central social grace.

The consumer mood is fraught with shopper's remorse. A December survey by Mintel market research found that among 18- to 24-year-old Britons, nearly half "like to enjoy life and don't want to worry about the future," but nearly three quarters say saving money is a top personal priority. Igor Novakovic, 27, a Croatian-born Web publisher living in Oxford, spends nearly all his paycheck on luxuries. Last year he bought a [pounds sterling]400 stereo, but then couldn't pay his mobile-phone bill: "It's money-juggling rather than not having any."

One highly unscientific ...