The coalescing of disaffected middle Americans looks different in 2011 than the coalescing of disadvantaged Americans in the 1960s.  In that era, the civil rights, anti-war and free speech movements were broadly unpopular with the middle class and relied almost entirely on upper crust intelligentsia to persuade the nation’s courts and – to a lesser degree – its legislators to move

More than a few seasoned financial observers say Bank of America is in desperate financial shape and its problems are worsening. Its acquisition of Countrywide was disastrous and left them with hundreds of billions of toxic glop on their books. In addition, they are getting hammered by a multitude of lawsuits and investigations over their allegedly dicey business practices.

Occupy Wall Street, the nationwide protest movement inspired by the ongoing demonstration in downtown Manhattan, invites comparison with the Tea Party movement, which took the nation by storm in early 2009.  The question is, what can Occupy Wall Street learn from the Tea Party movement?