Income bonds should be used more extensively by corporations than they are. Their avoidance apparently arises from a mere accident of economic history–namely, that they were first employed in quantity in connection with railroad reorganizations, and hence they have been associated from the start with financial weakness and poor investment status. But the form itself has several practical advantages… Chief among these is the deductibility of the interest paid from the company's taxable income.

-Benjamin Graham

Income bonds in sum, are securities that appear to have all the supposed tax advantages of debt, without the bankruptcy cost disadvantages. Yet, except for a brief flurry in the 1960s, such bonds are rarely used.

The conventional wisdom attributes this dearth to the unsavory connotations that surround such bonds. As an investment banker once put it to me: “They have the smell of death about them.” Perhaps so. But the obvious retort is that bit of ancient Roman wisdom: pecunia non olet (money has no odor).

-Merton Miller

公司应该比现在更广泛地使用收益债券。他们的回避显然只是经济史上的一个偶然事件——即他们最初在铁路重组中大量雇用，因此从一开始他们就与财务疲软和投资状况不佳联系在一起。但这种形式本身有几个实际优势……其中最主要的是可以从公司的应税收入中扣除支付的利息。

-本杰明格雷厄姆

总的来说，收益债券是似乎具有债务所有假定的税收优势但没有破产成本劣势的证券。然而，除了 1960 年代的短暂风波之外，这种债券很少被使用。

传统观点将这种缺乏归因于围绕此类债券的令人讨厌的内涵。正如一位投资银行家曾经对我说的那样：“他们身上散发着死亡的气息。” 也许是这样。但明显的反驳是那句古罗马智慧：pecunia non olet（钱没有气味）。

-默顿·米勒