SOMETIMES, the crocodile biting your leg isn't the one that eats you. Default is on everyone's mind and deflation keeps economists turning restlessly until dawn. But the risk of inflation should not be ignored while we're nationalising and bailing out. It might already matter.

One of the stranger concerns of the financial crisis has been fears over student loan programmes. These were included in Hank Paulson's proposal to Congress yesterday for a new consumer credit facility. Student loan disruptions, from most accounts I've seen, have been largely over-grieved, but they get a disproportionate share of attention because it seems absurd for a government-backed loan programme to be judged as risky. Default, however, is the risk we're used to, but not the only one out there.

Fixed-rate loans, which Stafford student loans are, present a considerable risk if inflation erases the gain from interest. With credit markets so unpredictable and so much stimulus money sloshing around the planet, price volatility may well be the next crisis. Credit instruments like student loans and fixed-rate mortgages might become far less desirable to lenders because of very interventions meant to keep them flowing.

A note to commenters—I may not rest again until there is at least one good Ludwig von Mises rant posted below. Spare no exclamation marks.