Tom Au

15,294 reputation

11968

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	location	New York, New York
	age	55
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	seen	42 mins ago
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I took a double major in Economics and History in college in the 1970s. My "sweet spot" probably lies at the intersection of those two subjects. For instance, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" was really an "economic" admonition--to conserve ammunition.

I am the published author of "A Modern Approach to Graham and Dodd Investing" (Wiley, 2004), an (economic) "history of the future," and the unpublished author of "Axis Overstretch," an economic analysis of World War II.

	15,294 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
11968 badges		location	New York, New York		seen	42 mins ago

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1d	comment	The effects of war on the workforce +1 A heroic effort to answer a difficult question.
1d	comment	Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars? @jwenting: Regarding size and population, I'd call it a "porcupine" effect. That is an animal that is "prickly" in comparison to the amount of meat that can be obtained.
2d	comment	Why didn't the Arab states industrialize? @Felix Goldberg: The OP tagged it with 20th and 19th centuries. That's about as clear as you can get.
2d	comment	Why didn't the Arab states industrialize? @Felix Goldberg: Here, it says that "the original homeland of the Arabs is the Arabian Peninsula." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world The rest of the "Arab World" is actually a hodgepodge of peoples including the Arabs. And the OP specifically said, "Arabian peninsula" in the first line.
2d	comment	What other pairs of wars have had a ~25 year interval? @FelixGoldberg: I could consider that a precursor of the NEXT cycle (World War I, World War II, Korean War. The Spanish-American war was also associated with the Philippines and Asia. In any event, Cuba was "offshore" the U.S., not part of the north American continent. Nor was it part of the slavery debate.
2d	comment	Is there parallelism between Aztec cannibalism and ingestion of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ that Catholics practice in their Communion ritual? @Luke: I improved the question by actually citing the expert in question, and by asking if other experts agree with him. Would you consider voting to reopen the question in its current form?
May 18	comment	How did India join the Soviet bloc during the cold war? India had even more reason to "align" (informally) with the Soviet Union after Nixon went to China in 1972.
May 17	comment	Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan? @Luke: I have recollection of reading this in a book about World War II over ten years ago.
May 16	comment	Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan? @RickyDemer: Before.
May 16	comment	Resistance in 1938 Czechoslovakia @T.E.D.: I'm with you on the "localized" bit.
May 15	comment	Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars? @CsBalazsHungary: Thanks for your help. Greatly appreciated.
May 15	comment	Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars? @CsBalazsHungary: "Every man has been trained, owns a gun, and knows how to shoot is a big deterrent. Imagine being a country (like Germany) where 20% of your men are in the army, and having to fight a country where 100% of the men are are armed. I also discussed terrain in the revised answer.
May 15	comment	Why China was able to unify and not Europe One reason is because the state of Qin won a REAL LIFE "game" of "Diplomacy" over two millenia ago. boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/11977/…
May 14	comment	Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk? @FelixGoldberg: By typing in "Truman, "if we see that Germany," I get a LOT of references. us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/… Take your pick. Ditto for the Patton reference.
May 13	comment	Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk? @FelixGoldberg: Very good point. Complexity of Lend Lease dynamics probably meant that the U.S. didn't have a clear policy re Soviet Union. Basically an answer, and probably an upvotable one, in itself.
May 12	comment	How was the United States able to produce excellent tanks in 1942? "The Americans had a lot to learn in 1942 (though everyone agrees they did learn quickly)." An earlier generation of British soldiers experienced this in 1776 (and shortly thereafter).
May 11	comment	What role did Lucky Luciano play in faciliting South Europe invasion? Interesting question. +1
May 10	comment	Was Hitler's genocide of the Jews “different” from other mass killings? @J.Katzwinkel: When I asked this question on meta, it was downvoted, and I was basically told that I was being "too hard" on Hitler. meta.history.stackexchange.com/questions/504/… So when I edited the above question, I used allegedly and quotation marks to demonstrate "neutrality." Doing my best to follow site guidelines.
May 10	comment	Where does the name of the country “Belarus” come from? @FelixGoldberg: Changed "Rus was a leader of" to "Rus was a reference to" a group of Vikings... Is the new version correct?
May 9	comment	Has history mistreated Nero? @YannisRizos: Removed references to bursts of anger.