Currency rally gets wiped out…Geithner to talk about a strong dollar? Brazil cuts rates! The Fed to control everything? YIKES! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) is closing in quickly on its June 1 deadline to finish overhauling its operations, or opt for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Because that deadline is actually one week from yesterday (Monday), analysts and investors will be watching GM closely this week.

Give a bank an inch, and it takes a mile. Legislation is making its way through Congress calling for an overhaul of credit card policies. It aims to force banks to stop universal defaults. That’s because a missed payment at one bank currently causes all banks to raise their interest rate.

China Ramps Up Oil Refining; Lowe’s Tops Forecasts; Toshiba Raising $3 Billion in Stock Sale; AIG Fast-Tracking Asian Subsidiary IPO; Obama Sets First Pollution Limits on Cars; Homebuilder Confidence Highest in 8 Months; State Street Sells $1.5 Billion in Stock to Repay TARP Funds; Oil Spikes on Africa Violence, U.S. Refinery Fire

Even though the government stress tests have ended and the banks in question have set about raising the required capital, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s believes the nation’s banking crisis has “merely entered a new phase” and might not end before 2013.

Is the crisis really over? Commercial paper spreads have come down dramatically. Libor rates are (hmm – almost) back to normal. Even high yield spreads are narrowing.

Intel Dealt $1.45 Billion Fine; WSJ: Gov’t Wants Financial Sector Pay Overhaul; Verizon Divests Access Lines for Stock; AIG Says 5 Years to Pay Back Gov’t; Foreclosures Jump to Record High; Geithner: Small Banks to Get TARP Funds; Auto Dealers Get The Axe; Ford Raises $1.4 Billion From Stock Sale

The results of the government’s bank stress tests were released yesterday (Thursday), and the U.S. Federal Reserve has directed 10 banks to raise an aggregate $70 billion-plus in capital.

Boy, the government is smart. We bet even the great illusionist David Copperfield couldn’t have pulled of a trick quite as intricate, quite as convincing.

The results of the government’s bank stress tests won’t be released until 5 p.m. today, but people familiar with the tests and banks involved have already leaked some of the results.