Hugo Goal

About Hugo Goal

About 18 months ago I wrote this weird, esoteric, wacky article. I made the case that once U.S. dollar interest rates went negative, all commodities would warp into backwardation. Meaning, the spot prices for all commodities would become more expensive than their futures price. This is now happening. Almost all commodities are now in persistent backwardation. All grains, sugar, lumber, and cotton; energy including natural gas and both Brent and WTI crude oil; base metals including copper, tin, and iron ore. They are all in backwardation now, and some have been that way for months now. The CRB commodities index is now climbing at its fastest pace ever, doubling since March.

And this is with various forms of lockdowns persisting in Europe and the U.S., which should mute industrial demand for commodities. Paper currencies are dying. That’s what’s happening, pure and simple. And they are about to get their death blow.

What death blow exactly? Short term nominal U.S. dollar interest rates will be negative within precisely 4 weeks.This is because Janet Yellen, now Secretary of the Debt, has now begun the process of dumping $929 billion directly into the U.S. banking system by the end of March. This is in addition to the $1.9 trillion “stimulus” bill and $1,400 checks to every American about to get through in a matter of weeks.

How to play Hugo Goal

Five years from now, Curwen expects the development landscape – and the studios operating within it – to look markedly different.

“I don’t think the successful studio of the future necessarily has hundreds of people,” he says. “It could be a relatively small group of extremely talented people with great ideas, strong brands and a very good understanding of players, supported by technology that does much of the heavy lifting.”

That would also shift the basis on which studios compete. If sophisticated development capabilities become accessible to a wider range of creators, scale alone becomes less of an advantage.

About Hugo Goal

Singapore has also imposed a highly controlled casino model, with casinos embedded within enormous integrated resorts and accompanied by entry controls and social safeguards. But by incorporating other forms of entertainment into their resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa have proved hugely successful businesses that blend casino gaming with complementing luxury retail, hotels and entertainment.

Genting Singapore’s flagship Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) offers a smorgasbord of non-gaming entertainments, including Universal Studios Singapore. “These different businesses are planned and operated as one connected destination for leisure visitors, families, business travellers and event delegates, with the aim to widen the destination’s appeal, encourage longer stays and support spending across a broader tourism ecosystem,” a Genting Singapore spokesperson tells iGB.

Singapore’s experience shows that tourism growth and stringent social safeguards need not be mutually exclusive. Since its IRs opened, international visitor arrivals have risen from 9.7 million in 2009 to 16.9 million in 2025, while tourism receipts more than doubled from S$12.4 billion to a record S$32.8 billion.