Abstract: The global financial crisis triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis in 2007 also sparked the discussion of the causes of the financial crisis. From the perspective of the self-affirmed demand, this paper conducts an analysis. Its result shows that the individual requirement for self-affirmation will produce excessive demand beyond its rational economic demand, thus a supply gap beyond the social capibility is formed, resulting in the self-affirmed demand surplus. And because there exists a self-affirmed demand, a lot of people overdraft future, which leads to the generation of economic bubbles and eventually leads to the financial crisis. Therefore, the self-affirmed demand surplus is the ultimate cause of the outbreak of financial crisis.

Key words: self-affirmed demand; financial crisis; demand surplus; overdraft future