The banality of NSA misbehavior

So it seems increasingly clear that a healthy percentage of the NSA's spying activities are not directed at protecting us from nasty terrorists, but amount to some form or other of industrial espionage, implicitly if not explicitly on behalf of U.S. corporations.

... disclosures in recent months from the documents leaked by Mr. Snowden show the agency routinely spies on trade negotiations, communications of economic officials in other countries and even foreign corporations. 

American intelligence officials do not deny that they collect economic information from overseas, but argue that they do not engage in industrial espionage by sharing that information with American businesses. China, for example, is often accused of stealing business secrets from Western corporations and passing them to Chinese corporations.

And why shouldn't I believe you?!