Veneuzela’s vast gold and diamond mines, no small thing in the era of soaring gold prices, have sold concessions to several foreign firms to mine the minerals. But they have witheld the permits, so the firms, which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure, are unable to mine them. Squatters are jumping in, though, people who would probably be given jobs in the mines if the chavista permits would ever come through.

Today, Venezuela’s government has announced it will expropriate the mines – for idleness. The only reason they are idle is that the government refuses to issue the permits. Now, they are being expropriated.

This pattern of expropriations, by the way, is going on all over Venezuela. Factories are being driven out of business by price controls. They are then expropriated as idle. Farms, same insane thing. “There is no room for waste in this revolucion,” Chavez has said.

In other words, you’ll produce at a loss and only if I say you can first, or you’ll be expropriated.

It’s a communist regime there.