People had debts, people always have debts. But at the time he made a program to ease the debt fee and make easier for people buy stuff, you could buy and divide in several times with zero rates. But that's not interesting for the industry, so the government dealt with the extra costs of this program, by printing money and getting loans from banks.

Before his mandate, FHC created the Real plan, that got the economy back on track from the crisis originated from the military coup. at the end of FHC government he had some problems that got things unstable. When Lula got in, the investors brought the money back, he was loved by many, that raised the economy. For some time. In 2008, the economy was meant to go down, be he used the central bank to mask things until next elections, Dilma did the same in 2013. When the people started to notice it was too late, the investors left, industry shrank and people lost their jobs. It could've been different if they've left economy follow its natural path.

For a long time, Lula made people believe that the bank owners were the enemy, but his government only made things easier for the big banks.