You're completely right, Andreas- Hitler was generally ill-informed on even his resource-related decisions. Let me clarify- I wasn't saying that Hitler's decisions were SMART, just that they were based on resources. Hitler consistently failed to take smaller details into account. Your point on labor and machinery is very good here- there may have been resources in the Caucasus, but actually getting them back to germany and making use of them was very difficult. DIstance, partisans, differing rail guages- all made logistics very difficult in russia.
I think your last point is the trick here- Russia did not actually provide huge amounts of resources- not as much as France, Rumania, Bulgaria, and some of the other occupied countrys. This would partially explain germany's resource position later in the war. Despite the problems and retreats the germans had on the eastern front, their resources and production actually increased throughout 43 and 44. This would suggest that only a small portion of resources were being imported from russia. one of my books does have some tables and data on resources and importation- I'll see tonight if I can get anything...

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.