We are like the blind men describing the elephant.

You need to go back probably a century before Watergate to really see the interplay among the major themes: "investment" banking, drug trade, arms dealing, intelligence service involvement in financial markets, money laundering, hidden relationships.

Here are a couple of topics that help start ones voyage of discovery:

1. The opium trade and related wars over the last 200 years.

2. The Russian secret police under the Czar manipulating the German and French financial markets, ultimately benefiting Morgan, with a Panama Canal side story.

3. Harriman, Bush, Walker, et al and arms contracts: Colt vs Remington

4. Investment banks, the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, and the Washington Post. Extra credit for including military intelligence, Israel, and former Senator Bob Graham.

These should be enough to get you started.