Tuesday Morning: Baseball Bats as Sales Tools at New Century

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Good morning. Was it a Louisville Slugger or an Adirondack? Or maybe an aluminum bat? The Washington Post reports marauding mortgage salesmen at New Century Financial weilded baseball bats to intimidate appraisers inside the company into approving even the lousiest loans. ‘You didn’t want to turn away a loan because all hell would break loose,’ an appraiser tells the Post. Nice.

Wait a minute -- is this part of that controversial $3.2 million bonus program New Century says it needs to motivate surviving employees? You know, bonuses for highest slugging percentage?

The New York Times goes to Augora Hills and weighs in on the same story (Inside the Subprime Mess), but finds no evidence of office violence. Instead, the former CEO of Ownit plays the ‘Wall Street Made Me Do It’ card: Bill Dallas claims Wall Street wanted more ‘stated income’ loans (also known as ‘liar loans’), and that he reluctantly agreed to make them.

A Smart Money columnist argues renting is a better way to make money than buying: ‘Houses don’t appreciate any faster than the level of inflation over the long term, so forget about buying a home and put your savings into stocks.’