‘Bond King’ Bill Gross: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Tax on the Rich Is a ‘Necessary Evil’

Bill Gross, the billionaire investment titan dubbed “the Bond King,” said he agrees with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tax proposal, admitting that rich Americans should pay more in taxes—though not quite the 70 percent the Bronx Democrat has called for. “It’s a necessary evil to correct the failings of American capitalism,” said Gross, a registered Republican, adding that resistance to tax equality could result in what he called a revolution at the ballot box. The market pioneer, who founded the influential Pacific Investment Management Co. bond-fund company, also told Bloomberg News that his recent diagnosis of Asperger syndrome may explain both his success as an investor and why, as he says, he could “rub people the wrong way.” The interview comes ahead of his retirement Friday. “I’m an Asperger, and Aspergers can compartmentalize,” he said. “They can operate in different universes without the other universes affecting them as much. Yeah, I had a nasty divorce, and I still had, you know, feelings about Pimco. But I think I did pretty well in compartmentalizing them. Not that I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and start damning one side or the other. But when I came to work, it was all business.”