for the guacamole yes we know guacamole is extraimagecreditsam hodgson for the new york timesfinally with mr trump in attendance we decided to balance things out by inviting hillary clinton and bernie sanders we placed mrs clinton at the table with wall street chief executives mr sanders sat alonenow on to the toasts and roasts as we look back on 2015 and look ahead to the new yearcheers ms yellen the federal reserve chairwoman janet yellen seated on the dais has been repeatedly criticized by many wall street players for not raising interest rates fast enough yet she held firm and took her time until she believed she could raise rates without causing a threealarm panic she did it in december just as she said she would and the market did well next to nothing which was exactly her goal it is hard to imagine it going much smoother given all the consternation around a raise over the last two years could it have happened sooner perhaps but well never know what we do know is that so far during her first two years at the helm ms yellen seems to be steering the ship carefully and confidently it is too soon to say whether her policies will prove successful but so far kudos are in orderdont hold your breath just when we thought tax inversion deals had been slowed by new rules from the treasury department we got the biggest inversion deal in history pfizer buying allergan for 150 billion through all sorts of financial sleight of hand and legal maneuvering allergan the far smaller company will end up buying pfizer with the combined company claiming residency in ireland its easy to be cynical about the deal and call pfizer unpatriotic and i have but the real culprit is the nations byzantine corporate tax system which hasnt been significantly updated since 1986 that doesnt make sense both democrats and republicans have argued that we need to reform the tax system and both sides actually arent that far apart perhaps 2016 will be the year this gets fixed if it doesnt well be talking at next years dinner about other iconic american companies renouncing their citizenship for a cheaper tax rate abroadthe activists won now what first ellen kullman duponts longtime chief executive was shown the door she claimed to retire then dupont only two months later announced plans to merge with dow chemical what drove these corporate machinations activist investors nelson peltz pressured duponts board to oust ms kullman and combine with dow chemical meanwhile dan loebs third point aimed his sights at dow chemical dow chemical did the deal with dupont just one business day before mr loeb was technically allowed to speak out about the company dows chief executive andrew liveris of course said that the timing was unrelated whether this merger is a success remains to be seen but more than anything else that happened this year the deal demonstrates the increasing power of shareholder activists