To its advocates, the idea is a no-brainer: Charge a tiny tax on each stock, bond or derivative trade to raise badly needed revenue, discourage dangerous short-term speculation and make Wall Street help clean up its own mess. “It seems like an idea whose time has come,” says Jack Bogle, founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group, the mutual fund firm, who argues that a transaction tax would help curb speculative trading. “Speculation has triumphed over investment, and the implications of that are very bad.” The concept has been around for decades. In 1972, Princeton economist James Tobin, a Nobel laureate, proposed a transaction tax to calm the currency markets. The idea has since been suggested for stock, bond and derivatives markets as well. “It’s an old question in finance — whether you want to throw some sand in the wheels of the financial markets,” notes Wharton finance professor Itay Goldstein .…