Curious if any historians or economists have studied whether the Axis economic model was viable on a long term basis? It seems to me that the Axis was fighting to expand colonial empires with mercantilistic features. I seem to recall reading that the western empires were realizing that the empires were costing more to maintain than they were worth? Was free trade inevitable?
More can be written about about this, but for Germany in particular, there's an FAQ section "Nazi Economics" , including at least 3 discussions that focus on that question, by /u/Volksgrenadier , /u/kieslowskifan , and /u/prufrock451 .
For other nations, there's much less and it's much less applicable. Italy: "How did the industry in Italy change with Mussolini's economic policies?" by kieslowskifan, but I see little on sustainability. Japan: kieslowskifan did write about Japan's economy in war, but not a lot. The most I see is a list of books in "I have the impression that in WWII, Japanese garrisons on South Pacific islands were under-supplied and the soldiers were frequently malnourished. If correct, was this the result of Allied interdiction of Japanese shipping or Japan's inability to supply a vast empire in the Pacific?" I've not looked for the minor Axis powers, like Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and such.
This is not to discourage discussion. More questions, data, and debate are always welcome.