The -homology class of the Euler characteristic operator is trivial

On any manifold , the de Rham operator (with respect to a complete Riemannian metric), with the grading of forms by parity of degree, gives rise by Kasparov theory to a class , which when is closed maps to the Euler characteristic in . The purpose of this note is to give a quick proof of the (perhaps unfortunate) fact that is as trivial as it could be subject to this constraint. More precisely, if is connected, lies in the image of (induced by the inclusion of a basepoint into ).