The correct answer is: " It rose rapidly as farms and businesses closed"
One of the most destructive factors that affected the US economy during the Great Depression, apart from the financial crash in 1929, was the shortage of the demand. Prices plunged due to the excess of supply in goods and services markets and, as firms and farms went bankrupt, many people lost their jobs and their availability of income from wages, so there was an even further extraordinary contraction in the demand side.