I believe that people that Taylor Caldwell wrote about years ago exists. I don't refer them to the "Illuminati" but I know they exists
This passage in her book Captains And The Kings intrigued me when I first read it
Rory knew that the Committee for Foreign Studies had some three hundred members in nearly every country in the world, all bankers or industrialists, politicians and financiers, and that they had meeting places in every capital and that those meetings were discreet and unostentatious and that the general public was unaware of them. The meeting place in London was an old and decorous mansion of gray stone and ostensibly owned by a British banker who lived alone and was reputed to be a bachelor by his neighbors. None of these men sought publicity, and lived private lives which were known for philanthropy and quiet reserved living with their families. All had "private" fortunes, or let it be casually known that they were engaged in the professions, dabbled occasionally and mildly in politics, and art, or did "a little banking the family name, you know." Many of them had sons in government, in'dustry, the Navy or the Army ,or in the professions. Some of them were openly known as impressive financiers, especially in America where the possession of wealth was regarded as akin to holiness, and in Zurich, where the same opinion prevailed. But none really knew what they were, except themselves. They controlled interests in almost all the important newspapers in the world, appointed writers for those newspapers, and editors, directed editorial policy. They were the real owners of publishing houses, of magazines, of all the media that guided public information. They were the ones who really appointed the Cabinets of Presidents, and the Ministers to government in nearly all other countries. They controlled elections, built up thcir candidates, financed them, everywhere in the world. Any presumptuous or intrepid man who did not meet with their approval was lampooned in the press, discreetly libeled, or "exposed." The politicians, themselves, were often quite unaware of who had advanced or destroyed them. Even Presidents did not always know. Kings and emperors sometimes were vaguely aware of the momentous shadow that hung over their thrones and decided the destinies of their nations, and many were quite convinced that should they denounce that shadow they would be exiled, or perhaps even assassinated. The grip on events wasnot iron, but it was equally pervasive and persuasive, as soft and silent as mist which concealed invincible armies. They were never quoted in the press concerning politics or wars or other policies. There was never any public opinion except through their mannikins, who were excellently chosen for their popularity with the people.
LRG