Let me begin this preface with a confession of a few of my own biases. First, I believe that theory and the models that flow from it should provide the tools to understand, analyze, and solve problems. The test of a model or theory then should not be based on its elegance but on its usefulness in problem solving. Second, there is little in corporate financial theory that is new and revolutionary. The core principles of corporate finance are common sense and have changed little over time. That should not be surprising. Corporate finance is only a few decades old, and people have been running businesses for thousands of years; it would be exceedingly presumptuous of us to believe that they were in the dark until corporate finance theorists came along and told them what to do. To be fair, it is true that corporate financial theory has made advances in taking common sense principles and providing structure, but these advances have been primarily on the details. The story line in corporate finance has remained remarkably consistent over time.

让我以承认自己的一些偏见开始这篇序言。首先，我认为理论和由此产生的模型应该为理解、分析和解决问题提供工具。因此，对一个模型或理论的检验不应该基于它的优雅，而应该基于它在解决问题上的有用性。第二，公司财务理论很少有新的和革命性的。公司财务的核心原则是常识，随着时间的推移几乎没有改变。这并不奇怪。公司金融才几十年的历史，人们已经经营了几千年的企业；在公司金融理论家出现并告诉他们该怎么做之前，我们认为他们处于黑暗之中，这是非常放肆的。公平地说，公司财务理论确实在采用常识性原则和提供结构方面取得了进步，但这些进步主要是在细节上。随着时间的推移，企业融资的故事情节一直保持着惊人的一致性。