This is a two-step procedure, starting with the naming of official suspects, which requires relatively little evidence, before progressing to a formal indictment if more conclusively damning evidence is found.

ECONOMIST: The McCann case

The first thing you do is build a realistic step-by-step program to build up your endurance based on your starting point.

FORBES: Four-Step Plan For Trading This Market

Talks with the troika appeared to have stalled over the demand that Greece cut private-sector wages as a step toward boosting the country's competitiveness and jump-starting its recession-ravaged economy.

WSJ: Greek Party Leaders Struggle to Resolve Overhaul Differences

Now, the drug industry is starting to focus on the next step--pills that would be added onto the statins.

FORBES: Magazine Article

So you could even put the switch down to the slow death of that natural deflation built into the Gold Standard (or rather its step-nephew, the Gold Exchange system), starting at the very same time as US stockholders kissed goodbye to earning a premium each year above Treasury yields.

FORBES: Dividend-Yield Signal Screams Deflation Or Back-Up-The-Truck

At the end of its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, the Bank of Japan said that starting from 2014 it will step up its asset buying programme, making it open-ended.

BBC: Japan agrees 2% inflation target and asset purchases

"If there's too much uncertainty, no one will want to take the first step, " John Paglia, a small-business researcher at Pepperdine University, says of kick-starting the cycle of credit, spending and growth.

WSJ: Small Signs That Small Business Lending Is Up