Travis R. Martin, CPA, MBA

The Summer of 2009 is shaping up to be a bizzaro version of 2007, especially when it comes to the US auto industry.

With “fight,” “war,” “battle,” “struggle,” “throw-down,” and “confrontation” all officially out as possible ways to describe America’s anti-drug efforts, the country may find itself unable to simply name the problem, much less solve it.

So, now, the Government not only has a drug problem, it also has a marketing problem.

Mikey is part of a growing number of children being targeted by the IRS for failure to pay taxes on the toy prizes found in their cereal boxes.

KFC may do chicken right, but free chicken? That’s another story. On Friday, KFC issued an apology and a raincheck to angry “customers” who were turned away during a recent promotion for the chain’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken. The promotion, designed to be the centerpiece of the Grilled Chicken product launch, was fairly straight forward: [...]

What is big and bulky, useless after six months, and costs about $150? Your average college textbook, of course (although the Ford Festiva I drove in college also fits that description). Thanks to e-commerce titan Amazon.com, the textbooks of tomorrow may continue to cost an arm and a leg, but they won’t otherwise physically impair [...]

“Ultra-realistic.” Just a mere mention of the word can cause a gamer’s thumbs to twitch with anticipation. And realism, when it applies to throwing virtual touchdown passes or killing digitized zombies, is generally a good thing. When it applies to recreating a bloody battle in a war that hasn’t yet ended? Maybe Not so much. [...]

Here is a quick, two question pop quiz for you (do your own work – no using Google): #1). Name the fast food chain that, in December of 2008, suffered a public relations crisis when three semi-nude teenage girls took a bath together in a sink used to clean dishes and posted pictures of the [...]

Admit it. You’ve been driving past the poor sap in the cheap Statue of Liberty outfit for over a month now. It didn’t matter how hard they waved that foam torch or how many free hot dogs they offered, you still drove right on by. And you probably laughed as you did. Now it’s come [...]

Sometimes it is best not to think too hard about certain things. For example, it is best for me not to think about why I bought a new $18,000 automobile without so much as kicking the tires, yet every time I go to the grocery store and buy eggs I go through painstaking lengths to [...]

In the Spring of 2007, NBC rolled out “Andy Barker, PI,” a sitcom featuring a CPA that moonlighted as a private investigator. The main character, played by Andy Richter, filed taxes by day and solved mysteries by night. The show was a watershed moment for accountants everywhere. Until Andy Barker, mainstream television had largely ignored [...]