The Federal Reserve absolutely did not cause the Great Depression. Economic crashes occurred at least once a decade since beginning of American history, and as the economy grew more more interconnected and less self sufficient, economic crashes tended to be worse than the last, culminating with the Great Depression. Economists overwhelmingly agree that the Fed's biggest blunder during the Great Depression was not going far enough. It was only with what I'm sure you would call "money printing" enabled by the Fed to finance WWII, that the economy truly recovered.