From the article Where to store your encrypted data

Another risk to users and their data is industrial espionage. Greve said that he is personally not convinced that the large budgets given to the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other spying organizations are not aimed at assisting in industrial espionage. The NSA's mandate explicitly says that the data it gathers can be used for promoting the US economy. That aspect has not figured prominently in the discussion of internet surveillance, but he thinks it may have a greater impact than the other uses of the data.

Interesting point... I hadn't really thought of this. Certainly one can see international war as "preserve our economic model at all costs", so why not pervasive surveillance?