At that time, Lernoux joined the "National Catholic Reporter" as a Latin American correspondent. And she continued freelance reporting, most notably for "The Nation". In the early 1980s Lernoux broadened her horizons to focus on international banking corruption. The topic was the theme of articles such as "The Miami Connection" ("The Nation", February 18, 1984). Her second book, also published in 1984, "In Banks We Trust: Bankers and Their Close Associates: The CIA, the Mafia, Drug Traders, Dictators, Politicians and the Vatican". The book exposed links from international banks to governments, the Catholic Church and organized crime, and how their corruption fueled the Third World debt crisis.