but louise cooper, a top financial analyst in london, says the european holiday is over. >> louise coopert crisis. euro-zone countries have way too much debt. we have gorged on debt. we are living beyond our means. and after ten years of booming economic times, it is now payback time. we are paying back our credit cards, and that will prove very painful and costly.

but louise cooper, a top financial analyst in london, says the european holiday is over. >> louise coopere in a debt crisis. euro-zone countries have way too much debt. we have gorged on debt. we are living beyond our means. and after ten years of booming economic times, it is now payback time. we are paying back our credit cards, and that will prove very painful and costly. >> kroft: it already has. ten european countries are now in recession. in spain, where the unemployment rate is 23%, there have been general strikes and civil unrest. in france, three of its largest financial institutions teetered on the edge of insolvency until the european central bank came to the rescue with more than $1 trillion in easy credit to shore up the system. seven european countries have changed leadership because of the crisis, and one, greece, reneged on $133 billion in debts. >> cooper: this is an extraordinary event. you know, a member of the euro club, the elite euro club, can't pay its bills. that is extraordinary. a western developed country has defaulted. we haven't seen that since 1940, when ital

let's bring in louise cooper, bgc partners market analyst and jason, director of investment strategy. it is ladies first always on "street signs," louise. we've just been talking about the fact that it feels like leadership in europe is either lacking or crumbling just at a time that, correct me if i'm wrong, europe really needs good leadership? is that how you're reading it? >> that is completely spot-on. if you look -- we're a couple weeks away now from the greek elections. what is expected is a sort of fragmentation. lots of small parties winning seats. and a lot of parties that will play to the anti-austerity measures. that's what we're seeing. so we're seeing a fragmentation of political parties. what are we seeing in france in this first round of presidential elections? we're seeing 20% of the vote go for la penn and to europe and to eu party and over a third of the vote go for the nonmain two parties. we're seeing a fragmentation of the political cause and anti-europe national tendencies. none of that is good news for the environment. >> i don't know how to say a mess, but that