RECORD oil prices this week were evidence of a speculative market bubble that was set to burst in the next 12 months and make the hi-tech crash of 2000 "look like a picnic", US business publisher Steve Forbes said today. The price of light sweet crude topped $US70 a barrel yesterday as Hurricane Katrina headed for the US Gulf Coast, which accounts for about a quarter of US oil output. Mr Forbes, editor-in-chief of the influential Forbes business magazine, said inflation and increased demand from China and India only accounted for a small part of the price raise from $US25...