If you're laddering, it probably won't make a difference whether you go for Treasuries, TIPS, or a combo, on the hypothesis that the market is always equally wrong in every which way but loose.

What about the relative risk/reward spectrum, particularly for extreme events which the market is notoriously bad at gauging? If the market is very wrong and there is no inflation, or even deflation, for the next 20 years how much do I stand to lose with TIPs. Conversely, if the market is wrong and inflation goes to 10% for years how much do I stand to gain from TIPs.

To put this in perspective, given my overall portfolio, I think my biggest danger is large inflation, even though I don't think it is that likely.