How do I know if the threat is real?

"America’s long-standing ability to disrupt the financial networks of its foes and even permanently upend parts of the global financial system". The U.S. goal is to "starve them."

• U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper admits that the U.S. spies on "financial matters" .
• Ed Snowden revealed that "These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power."
• Edward Snowden tells German TV that NSA is involved in industrial espionage. Censored. Copies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center. Priorities are "financial information, stock transactions, business deals"
• GCHQ captured emails of journalists from top international media. 70,000 emails harvested in less than 10 minutes.
• N.S.A. Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images and from email for facial recognition.
• Inside the NSA’s secret Utah data center "capable of sorting through and storing every e-mail"
• NSA's Utah Home "designed to store massive amounts of information gathered secretly from phone calls and emails"
• XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
• Russia and China are hacking British companies and spying on their employees. A “major London listed company”, said to be Rio Tinto, lost a staggering £800m as a result of a “hostile state cyber attack”
• Cyberspace Becomes Second Front in Russia’s Clash With NATO. Targets include the Polish stock market, a German steel plant, etc.
• How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations. Snowden documents include how to "Discredit a company"
• Inside the Red Web: Russia's back door onto the internet. Able to "silently and effortlessly eavesdrop on emails".
• "Chinese economic espionage is so severe that stopping that is more important than being able to read the communications of a criminal,” said Mike McConnell, former NSA Director.
• China Is Still Hacking US Companies After Promising It Would Stop, Report Says
• Inside the Chinese Boom in Corporate Espionage
• China’s Growing Spy Threat One estimate is "there are around two million Chinese working directly or indirectly for China’s intelligence apparatus."
• Russia, China engaging in industrial espionage
• NSA asked Germany ‘to spy’ on Siemens
• "The Americans weren't just interested in terrorism; they also used their technical abilities to spy on companies and agencies in Western Europe."
• Espionage and a treaty dividing $40 billion in oil and gas revenues
• American Ambassador thanks NSA for "deep insight into the plans and intentions" of economic negotiators.
• Energy and Mining a focus:
  • US on Brazil: NSA accused of spying on Brazilian oil company Petrobras
  • Canada and US on Brazil. Brazil-Canada espionage: Which countries are we spying on? and American and Canadian Spies target Brazilian Energy and Mining Ministry
  • Australia on Japan. Australian spy agency helped BHP negotiate trade deals
  • Australia on East Timor Brandis orders ASIO raids related to East Timor spying case
  • US on EU Obama advisor: Pipeline deals could see US spy on EU leaders
  • UK on OPEC: UK spies continue “quantum insert” attack via LinkedIn, Slashdot pages
  • UK on South Korea: UK targeting email of "aviation, energy, and finance sectors"
  • US on Venezuela: NSA caught spying on Venezuelan oil company
• The U.S. Government's Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations
• Why Did DOJ Indict the Chinese Military Officers?
• NSA accused of intercepting emails sent by mobile phone firm employees
• Espionnage Élysée "including the interception of all French corporate contracts and negotiations valued at more than $200 million."
• Many years. ECHELON. Search on page for "economic" and "industrial". More
• CIA Presentation On Big Data. They openly want "all human generated information."