Economic Victory is an option in A&A (any edition) but for some reason many players don't use it. Strangely, half the time I win with the Axis win it is by using EV (although there is a debate whether using EV simply shortens the game, i.e. the Axis would win anyway, or is a valid alternative option for the Axis to win the game) Personally, EV in simplest terms is capturing and holding a large amount of IPC's.

From the Second Edition rules:

"Axis powers must conquer enough territories to have a combined National Production Level of 84. This must be accomplished at the end of a round of play (all countries had a turn)." Excluding North America, UK, and Moscow there is only a total of 96 IPC's on the board! Assuming the Axis doesn't sack a capital, it must hold almost 90% of all available IPC's, and give each ally a chance to bring their production level below 84.

Sometimes, if the Allies are too cautious it is easier and quicker to win with EV (or by threatening the use of it) although it is normally quite easy to prevent this if you are playing the Allies (but at that point only at increasing the chance of losing a major battle somewhere else). The most common and understandable resentment from other players is that they feel as Allies they still have/had a fair/good chance to win the game, and then lost because of EV (almost in all cases is the Allied player caught off-guard when defeated by EV conditions --- most the time the Allied player is ready to give up anyway, but I refer to the exceptions)

My opinion on Economic Victory is :

1) I have never seen a game where the Allies had any realistic chance to win/comeback in the traditional method of capturing both Axis capitals when the Axis won because of meeting EV conditions. In all cases, I felt it simply validated the end-result in a quicker amount of time.

2) I have never played the Allies in a game where I had not yet forfeited and the Axis player met EV (so this means I was always Axis when EV was used and maybe I concede sooner than others when I play the Allies)

3) Conclusion: IF the Allied player did have any reasonable chance to win/comeback, it should have been quite easy to prevent the Axis from meeting EV. Since EV is clearly and plainly a rule not an option, my advice to those people who complain about it or don't like it when someone uses it is ... read the rules and play by them.