Is the latest financial industry bailout plan the only politically available option?

Several commentators think the Public-Private Investment Partnership plan announced yesterday to boost the prices of toxic assets and take them off the hands of troubled banks will do some good but not enough. Brad DeLong suggests the reason:

Why isn’t the administration doing the entire job? My guess is that the Obama administration wants to avoid anything that requires legislative action. The legislative tacticians appear to think that after last week’s furor over the A.I.G. bonuses, doing more would require a congressional coalition that is not there yet. The Geithner plan is one the administration can do on authority it already has.

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