NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Sen. Carl Levin, when asked about why there aren’t any bank executives in jail given the abusive practices in the mortgage markets leading to the financial crisis, offered this response:

“Hope springs eternal,” he said.

Perhaps, but on Wall Street the short term bet is that it’s off the hook.

The big Wall Street players singled out in Sen. Levin’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said all the right things. Most notably, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, +2.12% said it had reviewed its policies including what investments are appropriate for investors. Read full story on Senate mortgage crisis report.

Goldman and Deutsche Bank AG DB, +1.57% , which was also called out in the 650-page report, are embarrassed today, but they know that the damage is mostly in the realm of public relations.

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It’s hard to see how the report, as detailed as it is, will be turned into grist for prosecutions. U.S. regulators and the Justice Department have been slow to pursue fraud cases after failing to secure a guilty verdict for two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers charged with misleading investors.

The government’s one big success: a $550 million settlement gleaned last year from Goldman’s Abacus collateralized-debt obligation.

That settlement covers one of the deals Sen. Levin’s committee examined in depth. The others, Hudson, Anderson and Timberwolf, have been well known to the public since the committee’s hearings a year ago.

There are some new details including the derisive language — “white elephant, flying pig and unicorn,” “crap,” “pigs” — but name-calling hasn’t put anyone in jail. Just ask Henry Blodget, the former Merrill Lynch analyst who recommended stocks to the public and derided them privately.

In most of the deals, investor lawsuits have been filed. Regulators seem content with letting investors fend for themselves.

Goldman said in January it was “reasonably possible” the firm could be liable for $3.4 billion in losses from litigation. History is on their side. On Wall Street money talks, bankers walk.

— David Weidner