One night in early December, a Goldman Sachs partner walked out of the Pierre hotel in Manhattan with a big grin on his face. He'd spent the evening at the bank's annual alumni dinner, and there was a lot to celebrate. For starters, shares of Goldman Sachs were on a tear, having rallied about 30 percent in the month since Donald Trump was elected president. Trump had also restarted an age-old tradition of presidents naming Goldmanites to top spots in their administration.

Former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin served as Trump's national finance chairman and is now Trump's nominee for U.S. Treasury secretary. Trump has also tapped Goldman Sachs President (and the bank's de facto No. 2) Gary Cohn to be his top economic adviser in the White House. Other Goldman alums in Trump's inner circle include Anthony Scaramucci, a former Goldman banker and a member of the Trump transition team's executive committee, as well as Steve Bannon, Trump's campaign manager.