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Baby-boomers may recall, perhaps wistfully, how the golden-arched sign outside every McDonald's restaurant
嬰兒潮出生的一代人也許還能夠回憶起，可能會有些傷感，每家麥當勞餐廳外邊的金拱門指示牌
would proclaim how many customers had been served by the chain.
是如何宣告它們服務了多少名顧客的。
As they became adults, the number kept on climbing: 5bn in 1969; 30bn in 1979; 80bn in 1990.
隨著這代人步入成年，這個數字一直在攀升：1969年50億人次；1979年300億人次；1990年800億人次。
Jerry Seinfeld, a wry chronicler of the trivial, was moved to ask: "Why is McDonald's still counting?"
滑稽的瑣事編年史家杰瑞·宋飛感動地問：“為什么麥當勞還在統計著人數？”
Do we really need to know about every last burger? Just put up a sign that says, "We're doing very well."
我們真的需要知道每一個漢堡的一切么？只用立一個標牌說，“我們做的非常棒。“不就好了么。
The counting stopped. The signs said simply: "Billions and billions served".
統計停止了。標牌上簡單地寫著：“我們為數十億顧客提供了服務。”
If this seems unhelpfully vague, that is how the counting business sometimes is.
如果這樣顯得模糊不清，那么統計行業有時就是如此。
Many of America's biggest companies, including McDonald's, report a negative book value, a gauge of a firm's net assets.
包括麥當勞在內的很多美國最大公司上報的賬面價值都是負值，賬面價值是對一家公司凈資產的估量。
Many more have a book value that is small relative to their market value: their shares look dear on a price-to-book basis.
更多公司的賬面價值和他們的市值相比相對較小：從股價與賬面價值基礎上來看，他們的股票很貴。
Much of this is down to the complexity of valuing a firm's assets in the digital age. But the result is that price-to-book is a bad guide to a stock's true value.
部分原因是由于，在這個數字時代，評估一家公司的資產很復雜。但結果就是股價與賬面價值為股票真實價值提供了糟糕的指導。
Stockpickers make a distinction between the price of a share and what it is truly worth.
選股高手分得清股票價格和它真實的價值。
Price is a creature of fickle sentiment, of greed and fear. Value, in contrast, depends on a firm's capabilities.
價格是變化無常的情緒的產物，或是貪婪或是恐懼。相反，價值取決于一家公司的能力。
There are various shorthand measures for this, but true "value" investors put the greatest store by the price-to-book ratio.
區分它們的速成方法各式各樣，但是真正的“價值”投資者認為股價與賬面價值比率是重中之重。
It is the basis for inclusion in benchmarks such as the Russell value index.
這是基準，如羅素價值指數，的包容基礎。
Countless studies have shown that buying stocks with a low price-to-book is a winning strategy.
無數研究表明購買股價與賬面價值比率低的股票是一種制勝策略。
But not recently. For much of the past decade, value stocks have lagged behind the general market and a long way behind "growth" stocks, their antithesis.
在過去將近十年時間里，價值股已經落后于共同市場，也遠遠落后于成長股—它們的對立股票。
Perhaps this is because, as the industrial age gives way to the digital age, the intangible assets that increasingly matter are not easy to put a value on.
這或許是因為，隨著工業時代讓步于數字時代，無形資產日益重要且其價值變得難以估量。
The tangible world is easier. Factories, machines, land and office buildings count as capital assets on a firm's books,
有形世界就容易得多。工廠、機器、土地和辦公大樓都算作是公司的賬面產，
because they will generate profits for many years. It is a fairly straightforward business to come up with a value for them:
因為它們將產生多年利潤。為它們定價是一件相當簡單的事情：
it is what the firm paid. This value is gradually written off (depreciated) over time to reflect wear and tear and obsolescence.
就是公司支付的價錢。這個價值隨時間逐漸勾銷（折舊），以體現它們的磨損和淘汰。
Such fixed capital assets, along with current assets (cash, stocks of unsold goods, and so on) typically make up the bulk of book value.
這種固定的資產以及流動資產（現金、未售出貨物存貨等等）組成了大部分的賬面價值。
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