On this topic and I believe it will be much food for thought ,I would be open to anyone's opinion upon reading part the Introduction to Carrol Quigley's book , "Tragedy and Hope " . Quigley was a Professor at Georgetown University and ,in 1992, Bill Clinton named him as his mentor .
I have read this book , which had the most profound effect upon my world view --- it is a long boring book but here is part of this edition's introduction , which does get to the meat of it --

By Michael L. Chadwick
In 1965 one of the nation's leading professors quietly finished the last draft of a 1311
page book on world history. He walked over to his typewriter and secured the last pages
of the book and placed them into a small box and wrapped it for mailing. He then walked
to the Post Office and mailed the final draft to his publisher in New York City. The editor
was somewhat overwhelmed and perhaps even inhibited by the scholarly treatise. The
last thing he wanted to do was to read the huge draft. He knew and trusted the professor
After all, he was one of the leading scholars in the western world. They had been
acquaintances for several years. He had already signed an agreement to publish the book
before it was finished. He had read several chapters of the early draft. They were boring,
at least to him. He decided to give the book to a young editor who had just been
promoted to his assistant. The young editor was also overwhelmed but happy to oblige
the Senior Editor. The young editor was unaware of the importance of the manuscript and
of the revelations which it contained. To the young editor this was just another textbook
or so he thought.
Somehow one of the most revealing books ever published slipped through the editorial
of offices of one of the major publishing houses in New York and found it way into the
bookstores of America in 1966.
Five years later I was meandering through a used bookstore and stumbled upon this
giant book. I picked up the book, blew the dust off and opened it to a page where the
author stated that:
"...[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less
than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the
political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. this system
was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in
concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The
apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle,
Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which
were themselves private corporations....
"It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves
substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians
and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised
them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down. The substantive financial
powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called
'international' or 'merchant' bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own
unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and
national dominance which was more private, more powerful, and more secret than that of
their agents in the central banks. this dominance of investment bankers was based on
their control over the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countries and
throughout the world. They could dominate the financial and industrial systems of their
own countries by their influence over the flow of current funds though bank loans, the
discount rate, and the re-discounting of commercial debts; they could dominate
governments by their own control over current government loans and the play of the
international exchanges. Almost all of this power was exercised by the personal influence
and prestige of men who had demonstrated their ability in the past to bring off successful
financial coupes, to keep their word, to remain cool in a crisis, and to share their winning
opportunities with their associates."
I could hardly believe what I was reading. I sat in the bookstore and read until closing
time. I then bought the book and went home where I read almost all night. For the next
twenty-five years I traveled throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East
following one lead after another to determine if the incredible words of the professor
were really true. While serving as the Editor of a scholarly journal on international
affairs, Director of the Center for Global Studies and foreign policy advisor for a key U.
S. Senator in Washington, D. C., I conducted over 1000 interviews with influential world
leaders, government officials, military generals, intelligence officers, scholars and
businessmen, including corporate CEOs and prominent international bankers and
investment bankers. I went through over 25,000 books and over 50,000 documents. I
learned for myself that the professor was telling the truth.
There really is a "world system of financial control in private hands" that is "able to
dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world." I call this
system the World Trade Federation. It is an ultra-secret group of the most powerful men
on the earth. They now control every major international institution, every major
multinational and transnational corporation both public and private, every major domestic
and international banking institution, every central bank, every nation-state on earth, the
natural resources on every continent and the people around the world through
complicated inter-locking networks that resemble giant spider webs. This group is
comprised of the leading family dynasties of the Canada, United States, Britain,
Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and China. This self-perpetuating group has
developed an elaborate system of control that enables them to manipulate government
leaders, consumers and people throughout the world. They are in the last stages of
developing a World Empire that will rival the ancient Roman Empire. However, this new
Empire will rule the entire world, not just a goodly portion of it as Rome did long ago,
from its ultra-secret world headquarters in Germany. This group is responsible for the
death and suffering of over 180 million men, women and children. They were responsible
for World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam, etc. They have created
periods of inflation and deflation in order to confiscate and consolidate the wealth of the
world. They were responsible for the enslavement of over two billion people in all
communist nations—Russia, China, Eastern Europe, etc., inasmuch as they were directly
responsible for the creation of communism in these nations. They built up and sustain
these evil totalitarian systems for private gain. They brought Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and
Roosevelt to power and guided their governments from behind the scenes to achieve a
state of plunder unparalleled in world history. They make Attila the Hun look like a
kindergarten child compared to their accomplishments. Six million Jews were tortured
and killed in order to confiscate billions of dollars in assets, gold, silver, currency,
diamonds and art work from the Tribe of Judah–a special group of people. The people in
Eastern Europe suffered a similar fate as the armies of Hitler overran these countries,
murdered, enslaved, robbed and plundered the unique people who resided there. For the
last two and one half centuries wealth and power have been concentrating in the hands of
fewer and fewer men and women. This wealth is now being used to construct and
maintain the World Empire that is in the last stages of development. The World Empire is
partly visible and partly invisible today.