Civil servants staged massive strikes opposing this and other reforms. Whilst general public credit card debt and inflation remained a challenge in 2004, Brazil's overall economy showed signs of expansion and unemployment was down. Polls in Aug. 2004 demonstrated that the majority of Brazilians supported Lula's tough financial reform endeavours. https://beadvices.net/userinfo.php?user=kurt.fullwood.451694&action=view&do=profile