more conspiracy

Another "conspiracy in plain view" is the Council on Foreign Relations:

http://www.cfr.org/p/

Their site currently features the agenda (not the full content) of a July
2000 conference on "The Next Financial Crisis."  The keynote speaker was
Alan Greenspan.  I'm sure I don't need to add that it's not just any
"group of private citizens" that is addressed by the Chairman of the
Federal Reserve.

Groups such as the CRF and TC come as close as anything to Marx's phrase
"the executive committee of the capitalist class."  He was referring to
the state, of course, and I agree with the many who have concluded that it
is more complicated than that.  Domhoff has done a good job of situating
the ruling class policy formation groups in the overall decision-making
process, most succinctly in "The Powers That Be" (1979).  In a nutshell,
the CFR represents the dominant internationalist wing of the U.S. 
capitalist class, and the TC (initiated by David Rockefeller) is a forum
for the internationalist wings of U.S., European and Japanese capital.  

RH