Well, Modigliani and Miller are leaving the room;

这里莫迪利阿尼和米勒没有给出解释
they say it doesn't matter.

他们说这不重要
If you ask them why a dividend payout policy has changed--

如果你问他们为什么股利支付政策改变了
there's a famous Miller quote--he calls it a "neutral mutation,"

米勒有一句名言他称之为"中性突变"
as a reference to evolutionary biology,

这是进化生物学中的一个词
that sometimes mutations are neither advantageous nor deleterious.

某些时候突变既不有利也不有害
The genome starts piling on mutations that mean nothing;

基因积累了许多无意义的突变
that's how they date the branches of the genome,

这就是他们如何鉴定基因分支的年代
by looking at the number of neutral mutations.

看中性突变的数量就行了
He said all this--this thing that I have up here--

他是这么描述的在这里
well the previous slide,

在上一张幻灯片中
showing the dividend earnings ratio--it's just cultural;

展示了股利收益比这跟文化相关