The calendar may be about to say 2004 but it's starting to look like 1984 (the book, not the year) as the PATRIOT act gets expanded once more. According to this article, if the FBI now wants to know anything about you and what you do with your money, all they have to do is hand a letter to whoever you do business with that says you are suspected of involvement in terrorism. They never have to prove you have any connection to any such activity. They just have to say that they think you might be, and the other party has to hand over all info on you, and is forbidden to tell you they have done this.
What do you want to bet that, in the cause of stopping terrorism, John Ashcroft and his minions will use this to inquire into every conceivable kind of financial transaction except the purchase of weapons?