Back then we had gross domestic product growth of 2.5 percent. Today, we were recently relieved to see our growth number revised up to a less-than-breakneck 0.1 percent. Back then we carried around a $97 billion deficit, but now we're in hock to the tune of $975.6 billion. And perhaps most troublingly, back then, 6.7 million Americans were considered unemployed; now 13.2 million, nearly double that, are looking for work.
So what does this all prove?
(Read More: How We Got Here, Where We're Going)
As Oppenheimer Chief Market Technician Carter Worth puts it, "The warm blanket of $85 billion in monthly Fed buying has given investors a tremendous amount of courage." In other words, these numbers make it clear that the Fed's bond buying has driven this rally, plain and simple.
That's why the most important comparison may be this one: In October of 2007, the Federal Reserve had a $0.89 trillion balance sheet. Now that has ballooned to $3.01 trillion.
This also helps explain why the yield on the ten-year has dropped from 4.6 percent to a mere 1.9 percent.
(Read More: What the Pros Are Saying About the Market's Rally)
Check out all the figures below, and come up with your own judgment about what has driven this rally.