This was supposed to be the year oil prices turned around. Ten banks surveyed by The Wall Street Journal in March predicted that U.S. crude would average $50 a barrel or better in the fourth quarter. December 2015 futures contracts were selling for $63.82 a year ago. Instead, oil is on one of its longest price routs in history, and it shows no sign of ending. Oil hasn’t settled above $50 in the U.S. since July. And in a reminder that energy busts often start out looking bad and then get even worse, analysts are rapidly ratcheting down their forecasts for 2016, and oil companies and investors are bracing for another year of pain. How did market watchers get this so wrong? Analysts say they forgot the lesson that supply-driven downturns can last a long time. “We haven’t seen a lot of the supply-driven oil-price declines in recent history,” […]