Bill Gross: Pimco profits to the takeover of Fannie/Freddie to the tune of $8 billion

Joe Kernen: ... taxpayers are going to end up enriching Pimco to the tune of how many billion dollars on that one day?

Gross: Well, the Total Return Fund, as you mentioned, by a billion and a half plus, the company itself by probably about 8 billion. It was a big day for us. But I wouldn't suggest... that's coming from the taxpayers or the Treasury.

Joe Kernen: That was simplistic. But, um, it's just anyone basically could've done it if they were watching you on CNBC. It wasn't that hard to figure out.

Gross: Well, I think that's true. And I think that everyone should come back like Bill Clinton in their next life. They should come back as a bond manager. Right, Joe?

Nouriel Roubini: We bailed out the credit of Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, now GM and Ford want to get bailed out and so on. At which point is the end of this thing, and aren't we in a situation in which there is a systemic banking and financial crisis? And at this point we can't just bail out everybody. What's going to be the end of this game?

Gross: Well, there is an end game. But I likened it to a situation where we've had a drunk driver - and face it, we're all in there in terms of driving drunk and using lots of debt, and poor regulation and all of that. We're all responsible. But a drunk driver that's now lying on the road bleeding - you don't just leave him there. You take him to the hospital and then you throw him in jail. Then, you throw him in the clinker, but not now.

Carl Quintanilla: Bill, Joe started out with that joke about the taxpayers and your good day at Total Return on Monday. Are you prepared, though, for some political pushback or to become some kind of flash point? You lobby the government to save Main Street and the biggest bond company in the world profits?

Gross: Well, we were lobbying, but only from the standpoint of a suggested solution... You know the lobbying has really taken place over the last 6 to 12 to 18 months. It's what we expected to happen, and so um, lobbying, yes. But you asked me on TV over the past several months exactly what I thought should happen and it did.

~ Bill Gross, Pimco founder, interview on CNBC, September 10, 2008