For pension funds and other investors, they represent lost capital and lower future earnings.
Expectations of lower future taxes and higher lifetime earnings may encourage investment and spending.
They lower future economic growth by reducing the level of national savings that can be devoted to productive investments.
Since lower future returns imply higher present values, that would lead to a sharp jump in the stockmarket.
Drug analysts said they did not think Procter & Gamble would be willing to make such a big acquisition because of how it would lower future earnings.
For many banks, raising more money from investors might help them lower future write-downs, said Stuart Plesser, an analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Research.
And lower debt implies lower future interest payments, which means that the government can pay more in benefits without raising taxes or cutting other spending.
We can still dramatically lower future greenhouse gas levels and conserve and manage our natural resources to increase their resilience to climate impacts.
Under the main proposal, pension scheme members can receive lower future benefits and keep their current levels of contribution or opt to pay an extra 4.5% to maintain their existing pension benefits.
"This in-force profit will continue (annuities cannot be surrendered or cancelled), but without new annuity sales, the fall in share prices can be attributed to lower future growth prospects".
But the company still had $816 million in paper losses at the end of the first quarter, according to S.E.C. filings -- some or all of which will lower future earnings.
