I think if i were to think of one phrase it would be the comeback kid. So europe has shown itself to gradually becoming out of the global financial crisis. and what we've got to be careful of is when we think about Europe it's not homogenous. You've got the UK, you've got Scandinavia, you've got Central Europe and southern Europe, and then all of those are moving at different pace and a different dynamic. But it's clear that people are feeling more confident. there's renewed optimism. I wouldn't say we're out of the woods completely but let's hope this is a renaissance.
There was a latch debate for for ages whether or not the bureau would break. This is not going to happen. It was never the case. but now investors around the world have realized this. And secondly people also start to understand that many not all governments in Europe have made their homework. The in broader investment community has concluded Europe's a great place to invest.
Now the great thing is there's some wonderful statistical help here. the economy is improving. We have been able to invest in Europe at pricing for companies that has been in a discount relative to what we see around the world. and then finally the performance of the private equity portfolios has really been good the last few years. If you look at the fundamentals Europe is still the largest economy in the world. That always comes with some surprise to people. It's the largest exporter in the world larger than the u.s. larger than China.
And Europe is this amazing group of very complex countries and institutions provide some complexity. And private equity is actually very good with complexity and very good with dislocation. So what's happened in the last two or three years since the financial crisis is that all sorts of really interesting investment opportunities have come up in Europe. We continue to see good industrial opportunities where maybe companies that have large global exposures but they haven't done the fixing yet in their footprint and we can do that. We are seeing increasing prevalence of digital business models in traditional industries something that in the US has happened maybe a little earlier is happening a big time in Europe now.
Europe of course they're always good company is a good prices that managed by good GP so it will always be part of our overall allocations.
