they affect the economy because they pollute it with billions illegal money, in italy they're going to take over any significant economic activity and not in the south only where they own everythings yet but in rome city/central italy and all over the north and the economic capital milan city
and when a mafia boss owns an economic activity its impossibile to get it legal anymore since when the boss dies his sons, nephews, friends take it
its not like the jews criminal in the states that took it in the past but today they are legal, something took over by the italian mafia is illeagl even after 50 years