These days, investors have to search far and wide to find positive data points, let alone a positive outlook, for the U.S. and global economies.

And, without question, the financial crisis and slowing global growth, combined with previously weak economic fundamentals in the U.S., are indeed formidable obstacles to any investor's hope for optimism.

Still, perhaps the real the danger lies in not where we are but in denying where we can be, and that's where John Maynard Keynes comes in.

For those unfamiliar, Keynes, along with Milton Friedman and Karl Marx, are the three major philosophers of modern economics.

In the United States, policy markers since 1981 have favored market absolutism, Friedman's view, peppered by government intervention, Keynes' view, when needed.

More recently, during the current decade, market absolutists appeared to have had free rein. Some of these market absolutists are now arguing that 'the market should run its course' and 'recessions, even deep recessions, are an essential part of the business cycle,' etc. Don't believe any of it for a moment, Keynes would say.

Expansion is the normal condition

It was part of the genius of Keynes that he revealed to us that the natural state of the economy is expansion and that a downturn is "extraordinary imbecility." Further, Keynes also reminds us that recessions, or economic downturns, are not necessarily self-correcting.

Keynes also believed that the market economy, in the form of mixed capitalism, could survive only if it earned the support of the public by raising living standards.

As Michael Fowlkes points out, economist Milton Friedman recently passed away and his accomplishments have been lionized. But I disagree with Friedman's views on corporate philanthropy.

Specifically I think Friedman was wrong to argue that corporations have only one purpose -- to maximize shareholder value. Friedman thought that chief executive officers who talked about giving back to their communities were merely displaying one of their ''suicidal impulses.'' The notion that businesses should aim to avoid pollution, say, or donate resources to a neighborhood was ''pure and unadulterated socialism,'' Friedman wrote in 1970. Corporations, Friedman argued, had but one purpose: to increase profits as much as was humanly possible. If you're feeling generous, give the money to shareholders.

In Value Leadership, I argued that corporations have a vital interest in giving to their communities. Companies that contribute to the communities in which they operate display a commitment to others that makes potential employees and customers feel better about the companies. In particular, I found three key activities that match corporate donors and recipients in a mutually beneficial way: