Finance is all about informational asymmetries. If I traded on informational asymmetries, I'd consider the US government surveillance apparatus to be a huge thr

Finance is all about informational asymmetries. If I traded on informational asymmetries, I'd consider the US government surveillance apparatus to be a huge threat. At the end of the day, the analysts at Fort Meade are probably the least worrisome of the people with access to all this data. The biggest threat are all the consultancies involved in the US intelligence industry. Companies like Booz Allen simply have too many ties to the financial industry and the security industry, and anyone who has worked in finance knows that Chinese walls and other mechanisms to prevent conflicts of interest are simply security theater.