Juan Cole, President of the Global Americana Institute, proposes a novel way for big banks to share some of the $47 billion they’ve set aside for 2009 bonuses to help Haiti:

So here is a modest proposal: Since public monies clearly were the basis for a lot of the “profits” the banks and finance houses made in 2009, why don’t the executives show at least a little common decency and donate 10 percent of these bonuses to Haiti reconstruction and development? That would be $4.7 billion, and it would go a very long way in Haiti.