A Year of Wheeling, Dealing and Reeling

To commemorate a banner year for deals, we raised a glass to some of the notable names of 2006 in DealBook’s annual “closing dinner” column. We toasted the likes of Lloyd Blankfein, who ascended to the role of chief executive at investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, and Stephen Schwarzman, whose Blackstone Group raised record sums of money for its buyout fund. We also lobbed zingers at some of the players who failed to wow Wall Street in the past year. To them, we say better luck in 2007.