【推荐2】Devotees of Stump-town Coffee, a high-end roastery with fewer than 10 total locations in four select cities, pride themselves on avoiding mainstream coffee chains. What they are probably unaware of, however, as they sip their mochas and cold brews, is that their favorite spot of individuality may soon be just another chain in the Phoenix airport. What they might suspect even less is that they will have a different shopping experience in the coffee shop.

Stump-town, the iconic small-scale brand, was recently acquired by Peet’s, a chain with a couple hundred locations. Peet’s has been in the news for taking over Intelligentsia, another well-loved and self-consciously indie coffee brand. Stump-town’s sale to Peet’s exemplifies an economic phenomenon not limited to the world of craft coffee. Stump-town joins the ranks of a number of popular brands that went from independent to corporate - then Italian San Pellegrino, now owned by the Swiss giant Nestle (along with its main competitor Perrier), the originally Quaker-owned chocolate-bar maker, Cad-bury, acquired by the U. S. corporation formerly known as Kraft, and The Body Shop, the cosmetics brand synonymous with ethical sourcing, bought by the French behemoth L’Oreal, to name a few.

Stump-town’s story is typical of an innovative young venture becoming a victim of its own success. Founded in 1999 by Duane Sorenson in his native Oregon, it turned into a national phenomenon and was at the forefront of the small-scale retailers that positioned coffee - making, and coffee-drinking, as a kind of art form. Stump-town’s business model rested on providing an intensely personal experience. Coffee-drinkers were treated with top-notch beans and unique brews crafted in Stump-town’s “coffee labs,” But these personal touches don’t fit well in the assembly lines of large-scale operations.

The arithmetic of the “bigger is better” paradigm(范例), or what economist call “economies of scale,” is simple enough. The larger the machine, the more lattes it can spew out. Most of all, scale translates into standardization: the conversion of an unpredictable creative process into a precise and highly economical algorithm(算法)of production. All of this means more profits.

But, based on studies of human behavior in places ranging from blood banks to daycare centers, academics now recognize that the calculus is more complex: People act more responsibly in the context of personal relationships that are meaningful to them than in strictly commercial deals, Loyal customers don’t mind going that extra mile to get the perfect cup of coffee.

Smaller institutions have much to offer - not just sentimentally, but also in terms of pure economics. The idea goes back to the 20^th century British economist E. F. Schumacher’s declaration that “Small is beautiful,” a notion fashionable again in the era of institutions “too big to fail.” Since the logic of scale is more attuned to quantity than quality, workers (whose wages are usually driven down), consumers (who enjoy lower prices, but usually get a worse product) and the landscape of the economy (which shows signs of marked decreases in diversity) all suffer from growth that is too rapid. Size is the traditional measurement of a company’s success, but when stability is pursued as passionately as profit, less may truly be more.

【推荐3】The US government took extraordinary steps on Sunday after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), assuring depositors(存款人) at the institution that they would be able to quickly access all of their money. The announcement came amid fears that the factors that caused the California-based bank to fail could cause a banking contagion(漫延), and only a couple of hours before trading opened on Asian markets.

The Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said on Sunday that all SVB clients will be protected-including accounts that exceed the FDIC-insured limit of $250,000. “Depositors will have access to all of their money starting on Monday, March 13. No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayers,” the agencies said in a joint statement. “This step will ensure that the US banking system continues to perform its vital roles in protecting deposits and providing access to the money deposited in the bank for households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth.”

Regulators had worked over the weekend to try to come up with a buyer for SVB, the second-largest bank failure in history. Those efforts appeared to have come up empty as of Sunday.

The regulators also announced that the New York-based Signature Bank had failed and its property was taken on Sunday. At more than $110 billion in assets(资产), Signature Bank is now the third-largest bank failure in US history. The officials also said that depositors at the bank, which was closed on Sunday by the New York state financial regulator, would not bear the loss. Signature’s shareholders and unsecured debtors will not be protected, and management has been removed, the officials said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had said earlier on Sunday that she was working with banking regulators to respond after SVB became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis, during which Washington Mutual collapsed. SVB had $ 209 billion in assets and $175.4 billion in deposits at the time of failure, the FDIC said in a statement. The bank mostly served technological companies. “We want to make sure that the troubles that exist at one bank don’t create contagion to others,” Yellen told CBS’ Face the Nation.