Was it all a bad dream?

A busy 2011 might have left mergers and acquisitions lawyers wondering whether the Great Recession was just a plot device in Margin Call. Global M&A activity rose to $2.2 trillion in 2011, making it the strongest year since 2008, mergermarket reports. The picture was even rosier in the United States, which had $820.6 billion in deals; here, it was the strongest year since 2007. Energy, mining, and utilities work was especially robust, as was cross-border deal making.