I think that the answer to #1 is easy, they want to control the world. To me, the question is why NOW. There have always megalomaniacs who would have tried to pull something like this off but have not until now. Why NOW? Personally, I think either that they believe that all the preparations are complete enough to get it done OR that the unplanned release of this virus provided the first good opportunity after at least enough of their prep was done.