David Tepper on how easy it is to invest alongside government bailouts

It was easy. It was real easy. The government told you what they were gonna do. Basically, the government put out a white paper, I can't remember the exact date, in March, a Treasury paper. You can't put out a paper and say you're going to buy securities, and not buy them. Even the government has to be subject to the laws.

They told me they were going to buy Bank of America at a six-handle, they told me they were going to buy other stocks. Nobody believed them and the market kept going down-- they actually did. So what we did is we didn't just buy stocks, we bought bonds and preferred at twelve cents on the dollar, fifteen cents on the dollar, twenty cents on the dollar. Then, you know, stuff went up.

You have to believe the government's not above the law. Now, at that point and time, people were confused, they thought that... I don't know what they thought. They thought that this was, habeas corpus in the Civil War? It wasn't that bad.

You can't put things in writing and say you're going to buy at a price, and then not do it. That's securities law fraud.

~ David Tepper, president and founder, Appaloosa Management, CNBC's Squawk Box, September 24th, 2010