Many companies consider write-offs of some of their long-lived assets because some property, plant, and equipment have suffered partial obsolescence.

Not all capital consists of long-lived assets like buildings or power plants, Mr. Shoven said.

So, airlines lease some of their fleet, shifting the risk of holding a long-lived asset onto leasing companies like GPA.

About $680 million of the charge stems from the adoption of an accounting rule that changes the way corporations account for long-lived assets like oilfields.

The rule change requires that long-lived assets and associated good will be written down to fair value.

The Historical cost is the cost of using long-lived assets in any given period which depends on the original costs of assets.

Paper machines are long-lived assets that usually remain in service for several decades.

"With each film, they're building their library of long-lived, extremely lucrative assets," said Stewart Halpern, an analyst with Furman Selz.

The new accounting standard would change the way the company determines and measures the impairment of long-lived assets, or oilfields, used in its business.

Capital services differ from capital stocks because short-lived assets such as equipment and software provide more services per unit of stock than long-lived assets such as land.