Al Gore, in an off-the-record session, agreed with this thesis.
Inertia, it seems, has set it. Freeze trade may be the new, new thing - even if it doesn't get us anywhere. Stay put. Stay local. Wait.
The lackluster economic numbers released a few weeks ago don't help. Nor does Germany's painstakingly slow plan of action - if you want to call it that - for Euro zone reform.
"America wants a [quick] fix it solution," says Christian Angermayer, chief executive of the Angermayer, Brumm & Lange Group, a German asset management firm. "We don't work that way."
Tomorrow Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak. If nothing else, she may stir things up.
Maybe we do need a maverick in the limelight after all.