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Even so, Nixon grew increasingly impressed with Shultz's basic philosophies and his abilities as an administrator and negotiator. An economist largely influenced by the monetarist school, which holds that the Government should try to affect the nation's economic well-being by regulating the supply of money and letting free markets do the rest, Shultz sees eye to eye with the President on almost every major issue. Says a colleague: "He is in tune with the President because, like him, George is an honest-to-God conservative." Indeed, Nixon reportedly chided Shultz at one point for being a bit too dogmatic in the face of political necessity. The complaint was quickly taken to heart after the switch to wage-price controls in 1971—a move that Shultz bitterly opposed until Nixon adopted them, but which he then did his best to support. Said Shultz of his friend Chicago's Milton Friedman, the supreme monetarist who denounced controls as a drag on the free market: "I may be a Friedmanite, but I'm not a Friedmaniac."
In Washington, Shultz has become generally less rigid and more pragmatic in his views. Another reason that he gets on well in Nixon's Administration is that he has no further political ambitions. As he has often said: "I don't want to be a politician. Basically, I regard myself as a professional person." But, he adds: "I have more respect for politicians after four years in Washington. They have an instinct for what's troubling people and why."
Shultz, now 52, was raised in the comfortable commuter town of Englewood, N.J., the son of a teacher who, with Historian Charles Beard, co-authored a book on the Progressive movement. After graduating cum laude from Princeton, Shultz was a Marine in the Pacific during World War II, rising to the rank of major. He entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned a doctorate in industrial economics and settled in for a teaching career. At 36, he got a full professorship at the University of Chicago's graduate business school, where he also gained experience as a labor mediator. He was dean, of the school when, with help from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns, he got Nixon's offer to come to Washington as Labor Secretary. A patient, honest negotiator, he remains the Administration's only emissary who is really trusted by AFL-CIO President George Meany. Busy as he was with devaluation matters, Shultz still took the time to jet to Florida last week with Secretary of State William Rogers to explain the move personally to Meany. A staunch advocate of racial equality, Shultz helped sell the "Philadelphia plan," which guaranteed minority groups a set share of new jobs, to construction unions when the plan was still in favor at the White House. He has also quietly handled some delicate chores concerning busing in the South.