Cecil Moore wrote:
(snip)
W8JI says we are correcting the power factor. Every EE knows that
correcting the power factor involves shifting the phase, i.e.
the coil cannot correct the power factor without providing a phase
shift.

Power factor correction shifts the relative phase of current with
respect to voltage. When talking about a phase shift, you have to be
careful to say what is being shifted relative to what else. There are
lots of possibilities.

A series inductor (a non real, ideal one) with absolutely no phase
shift or magnitude change in the current from one end to the other,
still produces a phase shift of input voltage to output voltage, so
the relative phase of voltage to current at the input is different
compared to the relative phase of voltage to current at the output. I
think this is the power factor correction effect W8JI is referring to.

Any real inductor does this, and also does some other things.