  We propose a new framework for understanding the hierarchies of fermion
masses and mixings. The masses and mixings of all Standard Model (SM) charged
fermions other than top arise from higher dimensional operators involving a
messenger scalar S and flavon scalars F_i. The flavons spontaneously break SM
flavor symmetries at around the TeV scale. The SM singlet scalar S couples
directly to the Higgs H and spontaneously breaks another U(1) at the
electroweak scale. At the TeV scale, SM quarks and charged leptons have
renormalizable couplings to S, but not to H or F_i. These couplings involve new
heavy vectorlike fermions. Integrating out these fermions produces a pattern of
higher dimensional operators that reproduce the observed hierarchies of the SM
masses and mixings in terms of powers of the "little hierarchy": the ratio of
the electroweak scale to the flavor-breaking scale.
  The framework has important phenomenological implications. Flavor-changing
neutral currents are within experimental limits but D^0 mixing and B_s->mu+mu-
could be close to current sensitivities. The neutral scalar s of the messenger
field mixes with the light Higgs of the SM, which can have strong effects on
Higgs decay branching fractions. The s mass eigenstate may be lighter than the
Higgs, and could be detected at the Tevatron or the LHC.
