Suddenly the power began to increase.

VOA: special.2009.06.24

They told him that if earnings go up-- we try to keep a target payout ratio-- but if earnings suddenly shoot up, we're not going to increase our dividends right away because that would set too high an expectation and we don't want to have to cut it.

他们告诉他,如果收益提高,我们会努力维持既定的股利发放率,但如果收益大涨,我们不会马上提高股利,因为这样会导致过高的期望,我们也不想降低股利

耶鲁公开课 - 金融市场课程节选

For example, I don't have more space to write, if this is time and this is earnings-- if your earnings were,say, flat and suddenly increased like that, they wouldn't believe this increase at first, so the board would decide to adjust only, say, half way up.

例如,没地方写了,横轴是时间,纵轴是收益,如果你的收益,一直平稳,突然间提高,他们刚开始不敢相信这种增长,董事们决定只小幅增加,如增到一半

耶鲁公开课 - 金融市场课程节选