Every time in history, that the middle class has been wiped out, it has been from bad government monetary policy, or the institution of communism, period. Capitalism has always increased over time the quality of life for all.
The Government is going broke, and from Reinhart and Rogoff's book "This time it's Different, Eight Centuries of Financial Folly" Every time a government reaches the current situation of the West's balance sheet (Europe, and the US), governments have debased the currency - bad monetary policy, or faced default, ending all of those nice entitlement programs and military adventures overseas.

Also, the "crumbling infrastructure" argument is patently false:
http://cafehayek.com/2011/09/its-this-myth-that-should-be-crumbling.html
http://cafehayek.com/2011/09/crumbling.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-infrastructure-argument-that-crumbles-upon-examination/2011/10/31/gIQAnILRaM_story.html

I totally agree, I actually liked Fooled by Randomness much more than The Black Swan though. Also, to add to your list if you haven't read them:


Monetary Mischief - Milton Friedman

The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley

The Constitution of Liberty - F.A. Hayek

Dying of money - Jens O Parsson

The Fatal Conceit - F.A. Hayek

He actually said companies that have received bailouts should ban bonuses. (listen at 8:00 from the below clip.) This could be an easy thing to do, tied to the bailout money that they receive. Though he argues other places, that the banks shouldn't have been bailed out in the first place, they should have been allowed to fail. Bailing them out has rewarded those that have made mistakes, socializing the losses and privatizing the gains - this is the definition of crony capitalism. IT'S NOT CAPITALISM. This is incredibly important to understand so we can get out of this mess. Listen to him at 6 minutes in: "we're not living in capitalism, we're not living in socialism, we're living in some weird combination, with a cartel, the banks controlling more than their share". "It's a compensation scheme nothing more." "they blew up in 82-83, and they blew up now".

Unfortunately, now these liabilities have been moved from the banks balance sheet to the government balance sheet, moving lethal risk from the banks to the sovereigns, which will blow up the monetary system.
He also goes on to talk about the code of Hammurabi 1750 BC: "If a builder builds a house and the house collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house, the builder shall be put to death." "If it causes the death of the son of the owner of the house, the son of the builder shall be put to death" The Romans also implemented it, "If you were the engineer of a bridge, you had to spend a few nights under the bridge" "CAPITALISM IS ABOUT INCENTIVES, BUT IT IS ALSO ABOUT DISINCENTIVES."

Here is the clip of him on bloomberg:
Am I the only one who has a man crush on Taleb?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/nassim-taleb-occupywallstreet-and-his-updated-views-global-banking-system

It might as well be a 1984 reference, that's what they aspire to. WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH!!

Nassim Taleb on the Moral Hazard and Broken Economic Structure of the Western Crony Capitalists

The key message is that the economic system is broken and that there can be no sustained recovery unless it is repaired: Nassim Taleb on the Moral Hazard and Broken Economic Structure of the Western Crony Capitalists

We don't have a global oligarchy, we have a terrible case of crony capitalism where the ones that control the world are Goldman Sachs, and the Primary Dealers (the banks that sell the Treasury's debt) have an unfair leg up. The corporatism auctioning our governments and soldiers lives to the companies that fund the pockets of politicians has to stop. It is the reason the Tea Party started and the reason that #occupy is so large at this point. However, it's important to understand exactly what the problem is and why. That's why Ron Paul is doing so well. He's the only guy that understands economics. Unfortunately, he's not a good looking shiny figure on stage that will appeal to the "Access Hollywood" obsessed populace. These 147 institutions have pushed the risk from the corporate balance sheet to the sovereign balance sheet under the guise of systemic risk. Unfortunately, unless meaningful change is brought, not partisan bullshit, it will likely bring the end of a country or two, and definitely a bunch of currency systems.

Who is to blame? Well about every president, senator and congressman over the last 30 years, with few exceptions.

Steve Wynn Epic Rant Part II - Full Audio And Transcript With Complete #OccupyWallStreet Thoughts

Watch this:Fear the Boom and Bust [econstories.tv]
then this: Fight of the Century [econstories.tv]

Many of you are completely missing the point, compounded by anyone criticizing Ron Paul's economics by saying it's "stupid" has utterly no understanding of economics. Net, We in the US have two choices: take a good deal of pain now (slash government expenditures - and departments), or take apocalyptic pain later. That really is the basis of the choice. I'm going to go through this pretty fast, so try to keep up.

This is the best presentation I've found that really characterizes where the US and world economy is right now. One of the worlds smartest hedge fund managers giving you a real education of the state of the world. It's really a brilliant video: Kyle Bass @ AmeriCatalyst 2010 | 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWgtzwqWh60

The economics are sound despite the 3rd grade level retorts I've read on this thread. There is clear empirical data demonstrating that the money multiplier effect from government spending and lack thereof (expenditure cuts) that support Ron Paul's plan -support data follows:
"The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks," by Christina Romer and David Romer. Working Paper version.
"An empirical characterization of the dynamic effects of changes in government spending and taxes on output", by Olivier Blanchard and Roberto Perotti. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002. Online version dated July 1999.
"What are the Effects of Fiscal Policy Shocks?" by Andrew Mountford and Harald Uhlig. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2009. Earlier Working Paper version (no charge).
Here's a higher level view for those that don't want to get into the minutiae of the data and want a MTV education of economics: Watch this:Fear the Boom and Bust then this: Fight of the Century
Then the tired argument that Ron Paul wants a gold standard is just not right: Go look at his campaign page then read this: A Free-Market Monetary System http://mises.org/daily/3204
It's really surprising really, because technology and Internet people like us should really be the most capable of understanding the Austrian economic ideas. It's a complex self organizing system like the Internet. Hayek's absolutely beautiful essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society" captures it perfectly: http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html