Irritable means easy to irritate or bother.. If you have irritable skin, you get a rash from just about anything. An irritable person is not easy-going and often not very easy to be around. You might feel like you're walking on eggshells, or being extra careful not to upset your brother when he's in an irritable mood.
The economic problem. All societies face the economic problem, which is the problem of how to make the best use of limited, or scarce, resources. The economic problem exists because, although the needs and wants of people are endless, the resources available to satisfy needs and wants are limited. Resources are limited in two essential ways:
Finance & Development. G. Chris Rodrigo. Economics is split between analysis of how the overall economy works and how single markets function. A question of scale (photo: Zack Seckler/Corbis). Physicists look at the big world of planets, stars, galaxies, and gravity. But they also study the minute world of atoms and the tiny particles that comprise those atoms. Economists also look at two realms. There is big-picture macroeconomics, which is concerned with how the overall economy works.