I wonder what he said to Nixon when Nixon decided to put "caps" on the price of various goods? That was even stupider than the Watergate caper.
He wrote a letter to Galbraith asking snarkily how Galbraith felt to have Nixon as one of his followers. Galbraith never replied.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitextlo/int_miltonfriedman.html
MILTON FRIEDMAN: ... Nixon was a very, very smart person. In fact, he had one of the highest IQs of any public official I've met. The problem with Nixon was not intelligence and not prejudices. The problem with him was that he was willing to sacrifice principles too easily for political advantage.
But at any rate, as I was getting up to leave, President Nixon said to me, "Don't blame George for this silly business of wage and price controls," meaning George Shultz. And I believe I said to him, I think I said to him, "Oh, no, Mr. President. I don't blame George; I blame you! " (laughs) And that, I think, was the last thing I said to him.
Now, the interesting point of that story is that the Nixon tapes are now available, and I have been trying to get that part of the Nixon tapes, but I haven't been able to get them yet. I want to make sure I didn't make this up.