Your Uncle Fred has heard that you have taken a course on the economic history of the United States

Great Depression:

On October 24, 1929, also known as “Black Thursday,”

It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers.

Causes of the Great Depression

• The stock market crash of 1929. During the 1920s the U.S. stock market underwent a historic expansion. ...
• Banking panics and monetary contraction. ...
• The gold standard. ...
• Decreased international lending and tariffs.

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE CRASH :

After the crash, Hoover announced that the economy was “fundamentally sound.” On the last day of trading in 1929, the New York Stock Exchange held its annual wild and lavish party, complete with confetti, musicians, and illegal alcohol. The U.S. Department of Labor predicted that 1930 would be “a splendid employment year.” These sentiments were not as baseless as it may seem in hindsight. Historically, markets cycled up and down, and periods of growth were often followed by downturns that corrected themselves. But this time, there was no market correction; rather, the abrupt shock of the crash was followed by an even more devastating depression. Investors, along with the general public, withdrew their money from banks by the thousands, fearing the banks would go under. The more people pulled out their money in bank runs, the closer the banks came to insolvency.

the federal reserve criticized by many modern schools:

The House of Representatives passed the Federal Reserve Act by a vote of 298 to 60. The Senate also passed the measure 43 to 25. In both chambers of Congress, it was the anti-banker Democrats that overwhelmingly supported the Act, while for the most part the pro-banker Republicans opposed it.

The problem with Federal Reserve was that The United States is the only major reserve currency country whose monetary policy is non-negative. Furthering the Fed's problem is the market-determined yield curve. The market has decided that debt of almost all maturities should yield less than the fed funds rate.

It also has been criticized as not meeting its goals of greater stability and low inflation. This has led to a number of proposed changes including advocacy of different policy rules or dramatic restructuring of the system itself.