It's all about revenues.

Chief financial officers surveyed by Deloitte said nearly half of their companies' strategic focus is on revenue growth. This far exceeds their 30 percent focus on cost reduction.

As Corporate America gears up to report first quarter earnings this week, Deutsche Bank fired off a report to clients that predicts modest results and a modest reaction from the stock market.

The investment bank is looking for 6.9 percent year-over-year revenue growth, the sixth straight quarterly revenue increase. It will be led by revenues in energy, materials and info tech.

If you take a look at the compensation tables in the proxies of the Wall Street giants, it is hard to believe it is only two years or so since the global financial meltdown.

You would almost think the top executives are running successful hedge funds, given their gargantuan gains. And to think they complained that the brief government involvement in their affairs.

With the bulk of the companies having already reported their results, how did the fourth quarter shape up? Well, it all depends upon what you compare them against.

If you look at the comparable period the year before, the fourth quarter looked outstanding. However, it was only slightly better than the prior three-month period.

Chief execs are as upbeat as the global stock markets.

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,201 chief executives in 69 countries found they are nearly as confident in their outlook for revenue growth over the next 12 months as they were during the recent global boom before the financial crisis.

It is all about growth.

Finance execs are more upbeat about their hiring plans. And this is happening at the same time they are concerned about issues like health care reform, the budget deficit and housing.

It is very easy to be an economic worry wart these days.

Unemployment is stubbornly stuck in the 9 percent range, and we all know it is a lot worse than that when you consider the under-employed, part-timers, and fed up.

Anyone who watches CNBC all day has to laugh at the parade of pundits who equally make the case for the stock market being overvalued and undervalued.

Ultimately, this schism is what provides the liquidity to the market. Otherwise we would resemble one of those speculative "emerging markets" where most investors buy the same 10 stocks-and then dump the same 10 in a delirious panic when something goes wrong.