Scary only to people who hoard large amounts of cash in their mattress.
On the gold standard we had 20% year to year swings, but they averaged out on the side of deflation. Businesses were frequently run out of business because of the unstable money. But if you were hoarding cash, you did okay.
But you're right that whether gold/no gold, private money issue or fed there are regular business cycles. Schumpter talked about that.